Yeezus??? Is it a Simile, and Metaphor??? So the other night i was listening to alot of music with my friend and i heard this song and i was like huh?? It had me listenibg because he said alot of good shyt and then turned around and said something just outta there. Kanye West and his new genre-bending, chart-topping album Yeezus, you may have picked up on a theme: this man likes to pronounce his greatness. He does it in a myriad of ways. He did it by likening himself to Steve Jobs: “I am undoubtedly, you know, Steve of Internet, downtown, fashion, culture.” On his album, he takes it a step further with a Ditty titled “I Am a God.” Ok you and I know Kanye is neither Steve Jobs nor a god—not literally at least. In both of these examples, he is using a type of figurative speech that poets and lyricists have relied on since the dawn of language. It’s also one of the two mostcommonly confused literary devices in the English language. So is Kanye speaking in metaphor, or simile? Subject-English/Grammar: Whats the difference between the two? I. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance. For example, to borrow from another currently chart-topping musician,Justin Timberlake, the song title “Mirrors“ is a metaphor. Why? Because he’s using the word “mirror” to refer to a relationship—not to actual mirrors. The line in the song, “You’re my reflection,” is also a metaphor because the “you’re” to whom he’s referring is his lover, not his literal reflection. II. However, if the above line were amended to “you’re like my reflection,” we would have a simile on our hands. A simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared typically with the word “as” or “like.” So, for instance, in the same song, the line your shine is somethin’ like a mirror is a simile. Another lyrical example of simile that you might be familiar with comes courtesy of the Beatles: “It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog”along with “sleeping like a log.” With that being said when Kanye says “I Am a God,” or “I am … Steve of Internet,” barring the outside chance that he believes these statements to be literal truths, he is speaking in metaphor. Like countless artists before him, he is employing figurative language to add dimension and resonance to his ideas or to put it metaphorically, to give his ideas wings.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 06:18:55 +0000
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