Metaphor 

Metaphor is a kind of figurative language.  Metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two things that are unrelated.  They help to create a different way of seeing things.  Similarities of two different objects is made based on common characteristics.  There are two parts to a metaphor, a vehicle and a tenor.  The tenor is what you are trying to describe in the metaphor.  It is the subject of the metaphor.  The vehicle is what is used to change the subject into something new.  Metaphors are an integral part of literary works and are used in poetry, literature, or in everyday conversations.

An example of a metaphor in Paradise Lost is when Milton is describing Satan.

“As when a prowling wolf,

Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,

Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve,

In hurdled cotes amid the field secure,

Leaps o’er the fence with ease into the fold;

Or as a thief, bent to unhoard the cash

Of some rich burgher, whose substantial doors,

Cross-barred and bolted fast, fear no assault”

Here Milton is trying to create a visual pictures using metaphors such as prowling wolf whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey.  He is comparing Satan to wolf and a thief in these lines.  Milton is comparing the thirst of Satan to devour man to that of a hungry wolf on the hunt for prey.

Resources

“Imagery.”  Literary Devices: Definition and Examples of Literary Terms.                                      https://literarydevices.net/imagery/.  Accessed 12 Feb 2018.

“Homeric Metahors.”  http://www.umich.edu/~homeros/ Representations%20of%20Homer%27s%20Ideas/Homeric%20Metaphors.htm.  Accessed 12 Feb 2018.