What is a sustained metaphor mean?
A sustained metaphor is when the writer uses an image to stand for something else and continues to use the image in place of what he or she is actually writing about throughout the piece. Practically any piece of writing that tells the story of an object or an animal is using that object or animal as a sustained metaphor for some human experience. For example, in the poem “The Sick Rose” by William Blake O Rose, thou art sick ! The invisible worm That flies in the night, In the howling storm, Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. Blake is using a worm in the bud of a rose as a sustained metaphor for a terrible human relationship in which a wicked, parasitical man takes advantage of a pure young woman’s sexuality. He sustains the metaphor throughout the poem and never mentions human beings at all, but we know by his use of words like bed, joy, and dark secret love that he is talking about people. EDIT In a way, even the human relationship
