How do writers write well? They use a variety of techniques to create a personal style and vision. Let's look at few of them. Metaphor, from the Greek 'metaphora'' or transference is used to give a unique perspective on a familiar topic by comparing seemingly diverse subjects or concepts and so illuminating our understanding of the world. Shakespeare's famous metaphor from 'As You Like It'.
But what is he saying? This is a common theme in Shakespeare: the transience and impermanence of life, as short lived as a play upon the stage. To continue with our Shakespearian theme, he was also a master of the hyperbole. This means excess or exaggeration and is used to create emphasis. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand""
So says Macbeth after he has murdered the King. The exaggerated language here emphasizes his terrible guilt and the enormity of his crime. The heightened tone of the language serves to add dramatic impact. "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, A stately pleasure dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran, Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea"" So begins Samuel Taylor Coleridge's most famous poem, 'Kubla Khan'' which he claimed came to him in a dream.
There are various definitions of symbolism but the one I favor is that which reveals the mystery which surrounds reality and I think this works for Coleridge's magical poem. Since it was written, there have been many theories as to what the poem actually means. I think the poem is about the creative process. The sunless sea and the deep caverns symbolize the mind, whilst the Arcadian imagery of 'fertile grounds', 'gardens bright', represent the artist's imagination. However, there can be peril in unleashing the unconscious as implied in such imagery as 'a savage place', 'this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething'.
Yet, like all artists, there is an idyllic release when the restless imagination brings to the surface the finished work of art: "It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice"" But the poet remains an outsider, as he must, according to Coleridge, doomed to see what others cannot: "And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise"" For many artists the creative impulse is a blessing and a curse and Coleridge describes this ambivalence in the vivid symbolism of his poetry.