Young Writers Society

I've been given the task of writing something using a poetic conceit. A conceit is like an extended metaphor and "invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison." The example given was John Donne's poem "The Flea".

While I understand The Flea, I don't understand what an extended metaphor is, or how to make the conceit work. So, um, help, please?

Wikipedia wrote:Poetic conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs an entire poem or poetic passage. By juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison.

Found here.

I don't fully understand what it is, so I'd suggest clicking that link and reading whatever Wiki has to say. That's what I'm doing. I'll come back and tell you if I find anything new.

-Jared

Wow, my teacher completely copied Wikipedia.

How does an extended metaphor work, though?

Basically you have an extended metaphor. I'm going to assume you already know what that is.

If not (I'll show a common example)

The seeds of discontent have already been sown
To make this an extended metaphor the writer would have to write
It remains to be seen whether weeds or flowers will spring forth

Notice how the two are interconnected?

Now for conceit. So conceit would be an extended metaphor that is governed by a complex logic. It pressures the reader to think about what has been said or written.
For example in the poem the flea it is a conceit because the flea biting the two is the extended metaphor (compares the biting to the wanted sex married) where as the complex logic would be that theyre not married.

Sorry if this feels out of touch as I learned this 6 summers ago. To this day the only thing I remenber from that year was hanging out with my friend Anna.

I'll be writing a sequence of extended metaphor poems, so I'll do my best to help!

As far as defining it, Wikipedia does a pretty good job. In terms of constructing it, I would say, like when building any metaphor, start with an abstract idea, such as hope, hatred or the joy of sex - this will be your subject matter. Then choose something concrete to tie this abstraction to, which is how metaphor works. The only difference from your bog-standard metaphor is you have to sustain this figurative association throughout the whole poem.

So for instance, in my poem "Museum," the guided tour becomes an extended metaphor for the significance we put into dedicating or remembering someone, which is in immediate opposition to the unsuccessful life of the person described. Other extended metaphor poems, apart from "The Flea," include:

"Mirror" by Sylvia Plath
"A Consumer's Report" by Peter Porter
"Digging" by Seamus Heaney