http://www.nt.armstrong.edu/METAPHOR.htm
     RHETORIC (ENGLISH 5730 U/G)

EXAMPLES

A Few Metaphors

The Dark Ages
"We are not just a business or a company; we are a family."
"No man is an island . . ." (John Donne)
"If you've got to go to a bone orchard, midnight's about as good a time as any."   (Kinky Friedman)
"The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
  Petals on a wet. black bough."  (Ezra Pound, "In a Station at the Metro")
"Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food."   (Austin O'Malley)
"Ripeness is all . . . " (Shakespeare)



Dead Metaphors

muscle
disaster    
comet
person
manure, manufacture, manner, manuscript, manual


Love Is . . .

"Love is a rose."
"I'll love you, dear, I'll love you/Till China and Africa meet;/And the river jumps over the mountain/
And the salmon sing in the street."  (W. H. Auden)
"Love is a universal migraine/A bright stain on the vision/Blotting out reason."  (Robert Graves)
"That desert of loneliness and recrimination that men call love."  (Samuel Beckett)


Metaphorical Clusters

Chill out.  She blew her top.  He's hot under the collar.  That makes my blood boil.  She's fired up again. 

"The road less traveled."  "The road we all have to take--over the Bridge of Sighs into Eternity."  "When the journey's over there will be time enough to sleep."  "The world's an inn, and death the journey's end." 

Things are looking up.  She's been down all week.  I'm up for the game.  He's been down on his luck. 

That one night in September opened up a new chapter in our relationship.  I was ready to turn the page and move on.  "It's still the same old story, . . . on that you can rely."   After three drinks he becomes a completely different character.  She would never listen to my side of the story.  But when she started seeing her ex-husband again--well, then it became an entirely different story.   It all started out like a fairytale--and it ended up like a  novel by Stephen King.  Marriage #3 is the lucky one: I'm sure we'll live happily ever after.

You need more ammunition to win your argument.  Sharp wit may be your best weapon.  That last point really hit the mark.  You can't defend your position.  After she successfully attacked his claims, he retreated.  Once he had driven the point home, the opposition was bombed in the debate.  You want to attack my argument?  Fire away!  The candidate lost ground during that last debate.