Metaphor in Without Me
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b My Closet
I never meant to make you cry; but tonight
I‟m cleaning out my closet
3
rd
stanza, line 4 In this
metaphor, the literary meaning is found in line second “I‟m cleaning out my closet.” The situation in first line “I never meant to make you cry;
but tonight” is compared to the situation the second line “I‟m cleaning out my closet.” The situation in the first line is labeled as an A Primary subject and the
situation in the second line is considered as a W Secondary subject. In this case, the literal meaning is found in the object “My closet.” The object is considered as
a noun. Hence, this metaphor can be categorized as a noun metaphor. .
c Skeleton
Ha I got some skeletons in my closet
4
th
stanza, line 1 In this metaphor, the word “skeleton” is compared to the word “my
closet.” The word “skeleton” is labeled as A Primary subject and the word “my close
t” is labeled as W Secondary subject. Those two words have their own literal meaning too. According to Longman dictionary 2011, the word
“skeleton” means the frame of human or animal bones and the word “closet” indicates a cupboard. Their own literal meaning has shown that they are different
to each other. Hence, this metaphor is considered as a noun metaphor because the word “skeleton” is a form of a noun which contains the literary meaning.
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2 Adjectival Metaphor
Adjectival metaphor lies somewhere between a noun and a verb. In addition, adverbial metaphor is also used to give a sense to a noun that its modify.
In these song lyrics, there is only one adjectival metaphor that has been found. It is “wicked.”
a Wicked
I have; I‟ve been protested and demonstrated against
Picket signs for my wicked rhymes, look at the times
2
nd
stanza, line 3 In this metaphor, the situation in first line “I have; I‟ve been protested and
demonstrated against ” is compared to the situation in the second line “Picket
signs for my wicked rhymes, look at the times .” The situation in the first line is
labeled as A Primary subject and the situation in the second line is labeled as W Secondary subject. In addition, in the second line, the adjec
tive “wicked” is considered to have a literary meaning. It is used to attract the noun “rhymes” in
these song lyrics. As the result, it can be categorized as an adjectival metaphor.
3 Adverbial Metaphor
Adverbial metaphor is less universally applicable than the adjectival metaphor because it usually qualifies a bland action in order to make it more
specific. In these song lyrics, there are 2 adverbial metaphors which have been found. They are “In the morning” and „In the evening”