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More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor
"The authors restore metaphor to our lives by showing us that it's never gone away. We've merely been taught to talk as if it as though weather maps were more 'real' than the breath of autumn; as though, for that matter, Reason was really 'cool.' What we're saying whenever we say is a theme this book illumines for anyone attentive." — Hugh Kenner, Johns Hopkins University"In this bold and powerful book, Lakoff and Turner continue their use of metaphor to show how our minds get hold of the world. They have achieved nothing less than a postmodern Understanding Poetry, a new way of reading and teaching that makes poetry again important." — Norman Holland, University of Florida
244 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 15, 1989
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695 people want to read
About the author
George Lakoff
51 books850 followersGeorge Lakoff is Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UC Berkeley and is one of the founders of the field of cognitive science.
He is author of The New York Times bestseller Don't Think of an Elephant!, as well as Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, Whose Freedom?, and many other books and articles on cognitive science and linguistics.
He is author of The New York Times bestseller Don't Think of an Elephant!, as well as Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, Whose Freedom?, and many other books and articles on cognitive science and linguistics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
June 1, 2020
Is there a right answer to an English literature GCSE question?
Like many parents I have struggled in this debate, usually when one of the little darlings has got a poor grade in an English test. If they give their own interpretation of the poem and back it up with clear evidence and argument then I am sure they will get an A grade I tell them, somewhat disingenuously as this approach never worked when I was studying English. The conversation leads on to why English can’t be like Maths, with right or wrong and answers, and how - in essence - English teachers are bullshit artists.
Now, after forty odd years wondering about this point and thanks to this book, I finally have an answer:
I’ve read a few books on poetic interpretation, but this book is by far the most intellectually satisfying. The work backs up its analysis of poems with a detailed and very convincing application of a theory of metaphor (the subject of Lakoff’s more famous work, Metaphors We Live By). The poetic interpretations included in this book are, in my humble opinion, far and away the best I have read.
For my own benefit (as I forget everything in a book about a week after I finish it), I’ve tried to summarise the work’s main idea.
Metaphor resides in thought, not in words A metaphor involves a mapping between two conceptual domains within thought, the source domain and the target domain, shown in capital letters in the book as TARGET(S) IS/ARE SOURCE(S). For example, LIFE IS A JOURNEY, A LIFETIME IS A DAY, STATES ARE LOCATIONS, EVENTS ARE ACTIONS, DEATH IS DEPARTURE, PEOPLE ARE PLANTS etc.
PEOPLE ARE PLANTS you wonder? But they are! Metaphorically at least. Old people wither away; young girls bloom. Psalm 103: “...As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth…”. Auden: “....As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement, Were fields of harvest wheat…”.
Looking at another common metaphor, LIFE IS A JOURNEY, we can explain the target conceptual domain of LIFE by mapping on attributes of the source conceptual domain, A JOURNEY. The person leading a life is a traveler, his purposes are destinations, the means of achieving our goals are our routes, choices in life are crossroads and so on. These conceptual mappings are very natural arising from personal experience or cultural knowledge.
However we can’t arbitrarily map between source and target conceptual areas, mainly because of the different attributes and structures they may have. There are constraints in such a mapping which leads to constraints in interpretation as well. We are reminded:
Where this book loses a star for me is that, along with the metaphoric interpretation of a number of poems, it includes sections with an academic defense of Lakoff’s theories that are a little dull for the non-academic reader but which I guess the authors felt they had to include.
Where the book earns an extra star is in its masterful analysis of Shakespeare’s sonnet seventy three and William Carlos Williams’ poem ‘The Jasmine Lightness of the Moon’. My enjoyment of both poems was greatly enhanced by this work, which is sadly all too rare a thing to say about any work of poetic criticism.
Like many parents I have struggled in this debate, usually when one of the little darlings has got a poor grade in an English test. If they give their own interpretation of the poem and back it up with clear evidence and argument then I am sure they will get an A grade I tell them, somewhat disingenuously as this approach never worked when I was studying English. The conversation leads on to why English can’t be like Maths, with right or wrong and answers, and how - in essence - English teachers are bullshit artists.
Now, after forty odd years wondering about this point and thanks to this book, I finally have an answer:
“...Many [metaphorical concepts and] meanings are conventional and shared, and these limit what a literary work can mean to someone. Literary works, for this reason, can’t mean just anything. But, because what is meaningful is in the mind, not in the words, there is an enormous range of possibilities open for reasonable interpretation of a literary work...Literary works, and poems in particular, are open to widely varying construals. For any given person, some construals will seem more natural than others, and those are the ones that are often described to the intention of the poet. But if we actually talk to contemporary poets about their poems, we find that the poets most natural construals may not be our own…”So there we have it kids. There is no right or wrong answer to your English GCSE question and it doesn’t matter what the poet thinks about his poem. If you want to get good marks, you have to think with the mind of an English teacher.
I’ve read a few books on poetic interpretation, but this book is by far the most intellectually satisfying. The work backs up its analysis of poems with a detailed and very convincing application of a theory of metaphor (the subject of Lakoff’s more famous work, Metaphors We Live By). The poetic interpretations included in this book are, in my humble opinion, far and away the best I have read.
For my own benefit (as I forget everything in a book about a week after I finish it), I’ve tried to summarise the work’s main idea.
Metaphor resides in thought, not in words A metaphor involves a mapping between two conceptual domains within thought, the source domain and the target domain, shown in capital letters in the book as TARGET(S) IS/ARE SOURCE(S). For example, LIFE IS A JOURNEY, A LIFETIME IS A DAY, STATES ARE LOCATIONS, EVENTS ARE ACTIONS, DEATH IS DEPARTURE, PEOPLE ARE PLANTS etc.
PEOPLE ARE PLANTS you wonder? But they are! Metaphorically at least. Old people wither away; young girls bloom. Psalm 103: “...As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth…”. Auden: “....As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement, Were fields of harvest wheat…”.
Looking at another common metaphor, LIFE IS A JOURNEY, we can explain the target conceptual domain of LIFE by mapping on attributes of the source conceptual domain, A JOURNEY. The person leading a life is a traveler, his purposes are destinations, the means of achieving our goals are our routes, choices in life are crossroads and so on. These conceptual mappings are very natural arising from personal experience or cultural knowledge.
However we can’t arbitrarily map between source and target conceptual areas, mainly because of the different attributes and structures they may have. There are constraints in such a mapping which leads to constraints in interpretation as well. We are reminded:
“...Poets may compose or elaborate or express [metaphors] in new ways, but they still use the same basic conceptual resources available to us all. If they did not, we would not understand them…”PEOPLE ARE PLANTS and DEATH IS THE GRIM REAPER, but Death is not the Grim Baker. There is no easy or natural conceptual metaphor matching between the source domain of baking and the target domain of death. That’s not to say you cannot map more or less any source onto any target if you tried hard enough. Death might well be the Grim Baker if you are an avant-garde poet who’s just taken inspiration from a bite of stale Mr Kipling (a metonym, not a metaphor), but sadly English teachers aren’t very avant-garde these days and Death the Grim Baker gets you a C- at best at GCSE.
Where this book loses a star for me is that, along with the metaphoric interpretation of a number of poems, it includes sections with an academic defense of Lakoff’s theories that are a little dull for the non-academic reader but which I guess the authors felt they had to include.
Where the book earns an extra star is in its masterful analysis of Shakespeare’s sonnet seventy three and William Carlos Williams’ poem ‘The Jasmine Lightness of the Moon’. My enjoyment of both poems was greatly enhanced by this work, which is sadly all too rare a thing to say about any work of poetic criticism.
May 21, 2007
Cognitive linguistics. Had a big impact on how I think about and teach metaphor. See also "Philosophy in the Flesh."
July 30, 2007
very enlightening perspective on imaginative rationality and the experientially-grounded nature of figurative language
January 3, 2017
Easy to read, easy to understand, and definitely a huge help for my Stylistics papers!
May 24, 2015
While I find metaphor an interesting topic, this book is a tough read. It starts with many examples of basic conceptual metaphors (i.e., knowing is seeing) and then rambles around in an order I still don’t understand after finishing the book. Nowhere is there a definition of metaphor. The closest thing I found is a definition of what is NOT a metaphor. (And that doesn’t come until page 57.)
If I understood the book correctly, the human language is full of metaphors. For example: He’s left us. He has departed. He’s gone to the great beyond. In all of these phrases, death is talked about as departure. The authors argue that these basic conceptual metaphors are wired into our brains via culture. It is one way of viewing death that we all possess or are familiar with – and have probably used many times.
Other basic conceptual metaphors include life is a journey (i.e., miles to go before I sleep), a lifetime is a day (i.e., he’s in the evening of his life), people are plants (i.e., he’s growing like a weed), etc. Within these basic metaphors are different sub levels of metaphors, so there are multiple levels of metaphor that form a kind of taxonomy. We all use these metaphors to the point they are clichés to us. We rarely see the metaphor in them.
Poetic metaphor uses these basic metaphors and builds on them, combining different conceptual metaphors, adding depth and detail, challenging the clichés, etc.
The authors then show how this concept of metaphor can be used to read and interpret poetry. They provide a close analysis of a William Carlos Williams poem – seemingly simple and straightforward but actually laden with subtle metaphors that, when understood, greatly contribute to the meaning.
As noted before, I don’t understand how this book was organized, and that makes the ideas difficult to understand and, frankly,a drag to read. Many times I wanted to chuck this short book aside and move on to something else because it was so dry and rambling.
What is a metaphor? How/why does language have conceptual metaphors? What’s that mean to our use of language? Are these basic metaphors the same in other languages or are they culturally specific? If you want to know the answers to these questions, you won’t find them here.
This book has some interesting and important ideas about metaphors hidden within it. But it’s a frustrating search.
Note: Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought includes a great chapter on this idea about metaphor. Very well told. I'd suggest those interested in this topic start there.
If I understood the book correctly, the human language is full of metaphors. For example: He’s left us. He has departed. He’s gone to the great beyond. In all of these phrases, death is talked about as departure. The authors argue that these basic conceptual metaphors are wired into our brains via culture. It is one way of viewing death that we all possess or are familiar with – and have probably used many times.
Other basic conceptual metaphors include life is a journey (i.e., miles to go before I sleep), a lifetime is a day (i.e., he’s in the evening of his life), people are plants (i.e., he’s growing like a weed), etc. Within these basic metaphors are different sub levels of metaphors, so there are multiple levels of metaphor that form a kind of taxonomy. We all use these metaphors to the point they are clichés to us. We rarely see the metaphor in them.
Poetic metaphor uses these basic metaphors and builds on them, combining different conceptual metaphors, adding depth and detail, challenging the clichés, etc.
The authors then show how this concept of metaphor can be used to read and interpret poetry. They provide a close analysis of a William Carlos Williams poem – seemingly simple and straightforward but actually laden with subtle metaphors that, when understood, greatly contribute to the meaning.
As noted before, I don’t understand how this book was organized, and that makes the ideas difficult to understand and, frankly,a drag to read. Many times I wanted to chuck this short book aside and move on to something else because it was so dry and rambling.
What is a metaphor? How/why does language have conceptual metaphors? What’s that mean to our use of language? Are these basic metaphors the same in other languages or are they culturally specific? If you want to know the answers to these questions, you won’t find them here.
This book has some interesting and important ideas about metaphors hidden within it. But it’s a frustrating search.
Note: Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought includes a great chapter on this idea about metaphor. Very well told. I'd suggest those interested in this topic start there.
May 31, 2010
I read this, which I sort of didn't know we had a copy of in the house, after I finally committed and bought a copy of _Metaphors We Live By_, to sort of get a sense of what to expect. And I'm not sure what to think.
In places, notably the long second chapter, it's way too inside linguistics for me. I really don't know, and don't altogether care to know, how linguists approach the question of metaphors as a part of language. I mean, I understand why it's important to Lakoff-- but it's not important to me. And throughout the book, there's a level of explication that is a little too detailed-- I mean, I get it already, and the full explanation of what is going on and why was maybe a touch more than I needed at times, as much as again, I get it, that this is supposed to be a thorough primer. But as far as style goes, this book grinds more than it leaps.
That said, there's a lot to like here: as much as the way the writers point away from language to concept is heretical to creative writers, myself included, they make a strong case and get good results from making the leap, and this does allow them to credit writers with doing interesting verbal work with the concepts. The approach to proverbs in the "Great Chain of Being" section is lucid, and some part of me thinks there's a really fun and generative exercise in there, too. So it would be very unfair of me to pretend I got nothing out of this-- a lot of it was really solid. I do wonder what I'll think of the other book, but I really as of now have no immediate plans to dive into that one. Maybe later in the summer.
In places, notably the long second chapter, it's way too inside linguistics for me. I really don't know, and don't altogether care to know, how linguists approach the question of metaphors as a part of language. I mean, I understand why it's important to Lakoff-- but it's not important to me. And throughout the book, there's a level of explication that is a little too detailed-- I mean, I get it already, and the full explanation of what is going on and why was maybe a touch more than I needed at times, as much as again, I get it, that this is supposed to be a thorough primer. But as far as style goes, this book grinds more than it leaps.
That said, there's a lot to like here: as much as the way the writers point away from language to concept is heretical to creative writers, myself included, they make a strong case and get good results from making the leap, and this does allow them to credit writers with doing interesting verbal work with the concepts. The approach to proverbs in the "Great Chain of Being" section is lucid, and some part of me thinks there's a really fun and generative exercise in there, too. So it would be very unfair of me to pretend I got nothing out of this-- a lot of it was really solid. I do wonder what I'll think of the other book, but I really as of now have no immediate plans to dive into that one. Maybe later in the summer.
September 23, 2015
“More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor,” written by George Lakoff and Mark Turner is an eye opener for those interested in metaphors. It’s an interesting blend of language use and mental models.
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December 27, 2016I think I was expecting something more, knowing George Lakoff. But I was severely disappointed. Both authors seem to have a gift for expressing the obvious and ignoring the obvious questions. It shows how metaphors common in our Western culture are commonly used not only in ordinary speech but also in poetry. I particularly enjoyed the poetic analysis: it is the strongest part of the book. In the course of the book the authors attempt to come up with a taxonomy of metaphor as seen in Western literature. They show how one concept is "mapped" on to another, which is the only clear methodological point they make. They group metaphors into complexes that use the same metaphor in different mappings, and then proceed (wrongly) to use a general term covering all those mappings and call *that* metaphor, in a hierarchy of ever more abstract "metaphors." By their very nature, metaphors are concrete or, better, specific. Otherwise, their purpose fails. I would also quibble with a few of their supposed metaphors, e.g., TIME AS MOVEMENT. Duh. Time *is* movement, as Einstein showed. That is its literal nature, and when used in literature it is as its literal reality. I've only begun reading in the literature of metaphor, so its hard to evaluate this book in context of the academic conversation. But I wasn't impressed.
December 1, 2018
I love and agree with the theory expounded upon in this text. Metaphor not only characterizes our language, it defines our understanding even apart from language. Objectivity may persist (I believe it does), but man as a subjective perceiver and communicator cannot help but internalize much of what he understands as comparison, often as metaphor.
Although a large portion of the text ends up reading like a textbook, it is worthwhile to push through the tedium of the examples in order to appreciate the depth of man's use of metaphor from the most basic levels of understanding to the most complex beauties of poetry.
Although a large portion of the text ends up reading like a textbook, it is worthwhile to push through the tedium of the examples in order to appreciate the depth of man's use of metaphor from the most basic levels of understanding to the most complex beauties of poetry.
November 15, 2017
I really enjoyed this book, though it focuses a lot on taking back the principles presented in Metaphors we live by, so it might be a little boring for those who have already read this work.
However, Lakoff and Turner use poetic metaphors to show how basic metaphors (Life is a journey, Death is departure, Events are actions) can be ellaborated by poets.
I totally loved the last chapter about the great chain of being metaphor which still leads the way in our culture. The authors highlight how unconscious and dangerous this belief can be to our world.
However, Lakoff and Turner use poetic metaphors to show how basic metaphors (Life is a journey, Death is departure, Events are actions) can be ellaborated by poets.
I totally loved the last chapter about the great chain of being metaphor which still leads the way in our culture. The authors highlight how unconscious and dangerous this belief can be to our world.
November 23, 2019
Lakoff once again displays an extreme adeptness at putting words and meaning to paper. This book expanded my view-point in regard to metaphor (which was, admittedly, the intent). Lakoff's writing style can be dry at times, but for the most part is engaging and fun to read.
October 4, 2020
En rigtig god kilde ifb. med et semesterfag på studiet.
December 19, 2021
Starting reading this as research for a paper, kept reading because it’s about way more than “poetic metaphor.” Most of the examples are from poetry, but they are giving an account of how most of our communication works through linking semantic domains.
They are brilliant both in how they explain this (usually unconscious) process and how they highlight implications.
Some of it is so basic to our thinking that it’s weird to have it diagnosed and picked apart.
Some cool implications:
By providing a link to new semantic domain, metaphors prompt us to see/imagine concepts differently, leading to new questions, new insights, etc
Good metaphors become part of our natural language and then part of our intuitive thought processes. (E.g. why do we think of an increase as a move “up”?). Good poetry has the ability to question/twist these fundamental metaphors and upset/challenge our basic perception and thought processes.
All that said, it’s not an easy read. They try their best to be clear, but some of this is really abstract/meta. But I loved it. It’ll change the way I think about the New Testament’s use of the Old (importing conceptual domains) and the way I read and write generally.
They are brilliant both in how they explain this (usually unconscious) process and how they highlight implications.
Some of it is so basic to our thinking that it’s weird to have it diagnosed and picked apart.
Some cool implications:
By providing a link to new semantic domain, metaphors prompt us to see/imagine concepts differently, leading to new questions, new insights, etc
Good metaphors become part of our natural language and then part of our intuitive thought processes. (E.g. why do we think of an increase as a move “up”?). Good poetry has the ability to question/twist these fundamental metaphors and upset/challenge our basic perception and thought processes.
All that said, it’s not an easy read. They try their best to be clear, but some of this is really abstract/meta. But I loved it. It’ll change the way I think about the New Testament’s use of the Old (importing conceptual domains) and the way I read and write generally.
July 30, 2018
This was a fascinating but difficult read for me. I found their primary argument compelling but I am not used to reading poetry, so some of the longer poem breakdowns they did were tedious.
In the past I’ve thought of metaphor as a tool to help explain my thoughts to others, but I’ve never thought of metaphor as a universal, imaginative reasoning map. In other words, metaphors help us make sense of our world. Metaphor is not just cute ways of saying things while reason is the straightforward way. We actually reason through metaphor.
I read this book because I heard it mentioned on the Bible Project podcast. I’ll likely go back again and listen to their discussion on it because they apply principles from Lakeoff to biblical poetry by trying to tease out what the whole-bible, imaginative ideal might be. Great discussion.
In the past I’ve thought of metaphor as a tool to help explain my thoughts to others, but I’ve never thought of metaphor as a universal, imaginative reasoning map. In other words, metaphors help us make sense of our world. Metaphor is not just cute ways of saying things while reason is the straightforward way. We actually reason through metaphor.
I read this book because I heard it mentioned on the Bible Project podcast. I’ll likely go back again and listen to their discussion on it because they apply principles from Lakeoff to biblical poetry by trying to tease out what the whole-bible, imaginative ideal might be. Great discussion.
September 17, 2017
Lakoff and Turner present a smart and well written discussion of metaphor as a cognitive necessity and then explore how poetry works with metaphor using various poems from cultures across the globe. Thorough, clear, and intelligent without being oblique, this book is an important addition to my poetry theory library.
June 24, 2019
Gets really interesting at about 200 pages. The information that comes before the 200 pages is a good outline of different philosophical viewpoints on what metaphors are. The author shines when evaluating poems. I especially enjoyed learning about iconicism in poetry and the great chain of being.
September 16, 2022
I don't know how you feel about taking too many pages to explain simple concepts BUT if you have a lot of time on your hands and want to be thoroughly confused about something you already understand . . . . .This book about metaphor is for you.
If you have a few life sentences and nothing more to do with your time than inflict mental anguish on yourself, then this book is right up your alley.
If you have a few life sentences and nothing more to do with your time than inflict mental anguish on yourself, then this book is right up your alley.
October 31, 2017
Este libro le paso una aspiradora a mi cerebro.
October 5, 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I will admit that the explanations sometime bog down a bit. Once you get the method of their analysis you can probably do some of it on your own and thus the repetition gets a tad pedantic. All in all, though, it is an excellent introduction to how our language and thought processes work, showing that metaphor infuses worldviews.
One must be somewhat careful coming to this book with the expectation that it is entirely about poetic metaphor. It is not. In fact, the bookseller categories on the back cover are: Literary Criticism / Linguistics / Cognitive Science.
That said, it does address metaphors in poetry, but its larger task is explaining how metaphor works and arguing for a specific theory of metaphor, based on the Grounding Hypothesis versus most other theories of metaphor based on variations of the Literal Meaning theory.
This book came in handy for my Madwomen Poets class last week as I had just decided to write about Plath’s poem, “You’re,” and I then read the section on global readings of a poem. I was noticing something in the structure itself similar to what I decided the poem was about and this book gave me the language to explicitly state what I intended.
About a fifth of the book is dedicated to the Great Chain metaphor, in both its basic and extended versions. This section is quite interesting and provided me a far better appreciation for the depth and prevalence of this metaphor. One of the more interesting uses of this section is in their explication of proverbs.
I highly recommend this book as an introduction to metaphor. I have previously read both Metaphors We Live By and Women, Fire and Dangerous Things and no doubt they helped me in reading this book. But I honestly think this might be the best one of the three to begin with. Then move on to Metaphors We Live By, and if you are still interested in the research, and cognitive aspects, of metaphor and concepts then have at Women, Fire and Dangerous Things.
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
One must be somewhat careful coming to this book with the expectation that it is entirely about poetic metaphor. It is not. In fact, the bookseller categories on the back cover are: Literary Criticism / Linguistics / Cognitive Science.
That said, it does address metaphors in poetry, but its larger task is explaining how metaphor works and arguing for a specific theory of metaphor, based on the Grounding Hypothesis versus most other theories of metaphor based on variations of the Literal Meaning theory.
This book came in handy for my Madwomen Poets class last week as I had just decided to write about Plath’s poem, “You’re,” and I then read the section on global readings of a poem. I was noticing something in the structure itself similar to what I decided the poem was about and this book gave me the language to explicitly state what I intended.
About a fifth of the book is dedicated to the Great Chain metaphor, in both its basic and extended versions. This section is quite interesting and provided me a far better appreciation for the depth and prevalence of this metaphor. One of the more interesting uses of this section is in their explication of proverbs.
I highly recommend this book as an introduction to metaphor. I have previously read both Metaphors We Live By and Women, Fire and Dangerous Things and no doubt they helped me in reading this book. But I honestly think this might be the best one of the three to begin with. Then move on to Metaphors We Live By, and if you are still interested in the research, and cognitive aspects, of metaphor and concepts then have at Women, Fire and Dangerous Things.
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
February 16, 2017
A sentence from Weber's Biology of Wonder, "the unknowable can only be understood through metaphor," has led me into the world of embodiment and cognitive linguistics. Here I'm finding another way to look at imaginative structures and to explore how even our most conceptual discourses are deeply rooted in the body and the sensorial reality through which we orient ourselves.
February 9, 2015
Lakoff argues that poetic metaphor is not essentially different from our everyday language or thought processes. And the metaphors in any poem are largely the metaphors of the culture it was composed in, only elaborated, extended, and wielded by an expert. Lakoff analyzes a number of poems and shows how they can be understood only by making use of a great many metaphors so basic and automatic that we barely notice them at all. Great stuff.
April 20, 2011
This was used as a textbook for one of my linguistics courses, but I found it to be a fascinating read. I never realized how much we use metaphoric speech on a day-to-day basis until I read this book. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys the English language, not just those who are interested in poetry.
January 23, 2015
This book is good in that it's also a drag: to realize the world has been mining the same territory for years, ha! (I decided to contribute- another overused metaphor...) But because of this book you also become much more aware of what poets and writers in general are doing, and what you're doing...if you also like to write.
January 11, 2008
This is a great introduction to linguistics. I found it fascinating.
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June 4, 2012Tô lendo isso aqui, ó galera
January 18, 2013
The book is very helpful for those who study poetic metaphor.
November 18, 2019
See highlights for sample tidbits from the book with interesting trivia, phrasing, metaphors and facts !!!
June 10, 2023
Veers from fascinating to deadly dull. Will definitely have my kids read parts of it.
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November 8, 2012More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guide To Poetic Metaphor
April 4, 2017
I generally like Lakoff's writing and his philosophical approach to language and culture, especially his work on metaphor.
However, this book is not that terrific. It was designed for a college course and thus organized for a class, building on concepts section by section. It's not inaccessible by any means, but it is also less of a pleasant book for the casual reader as a result.
Finally, I have some disagreements with his analyses of poems. I love that he demonstrates how deeply embedded metaphor is in culture (that even things we take as 'literal' are not as literal as we think), but his application of that idea to poetry does not always produce results that are edifying as to how a poem operates in the world and mind of the reader.
However, this book is not that terrific. It was designed for a college course and thus organized for a class, building on concepts section by section. It's not inaccessible by any means, but it is also less of a pleasant book for the casual reader as a result.
Finally, I have some disagreements with his analyses of poems. I love that he demonstrates how deeply embedded metaphor is in culture (that even things we take as 'literal' are not as literal as we think), but his application of that idea to poetry does not always produce results that are edifying as to how a poem operates in the world and mind of the reader.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews