Ring-road Sentence Examples

The Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse traditions have a word for a compound expression with a metaphorical meaning: kenning. Simply put, in poetry, a kenning is when you take two words and combine them as a mild translation or metaphor for something else.

So, as you’re sitting by the fire one night, enjoying an anthology of Scandinavian poetry, you might come across poem about five brave men aboard a wave-floater (a ship). Kennings were often used to describe everyday people, animals, and objects.

To no surprise, they were used to brighten up an author’s prose. Why say “a ship” when you can use something more illustrious like “wave floater”? Let’s enjoy further examples of kenning.

Metaphors make comparisons between two or more things with colorful illustrations. So, instead of saying, “A fire broke out,” you might say, “The flames of the fire shot up faster than a trio of lightning bolts.”

In one short line, you can tell a graphic story, free of bland prose. Extended metaphors take on a whole new level of charm. These are metaphors that are mentioned once in a body of text and then referenced again and again later on.

For example, if the line about the flames and lightning bolts was introduced at the start of a paragraph, it can be referred to again later in the paragraph, or anywhere in the text. Perhaps the writer will say something like, “Not even the lightning bolts could catch her as she raced down the highway.”

Let’s discuss how to use this literary device and then enjoy a few extended metaphor examples. Together, we’ll explore new ways to prolong the life of your colorful words.