Dalam karya sastra, majas ini sering digunakan dalam bentuk kata-kata kiasan

untuk melengkapi unsur gaya bahasa dalam karya tersebut. Berbeda dengan majas lainnya,
majas metafora mempunyai ciri khusus yang tidak dimiliki oleh majas lainnya. Hal ini penting
untuk diketahui agar kita tidak salah mengidentifikasi majas dalam suatu karya sastra.

metafora adalah majas yang melukiskan sesuatu dengan perbandingan langsung dan tepat atas
dasar sifat yang sama atau hampir sama. Dalam pengertian yang lain, majas metafora adalah
pemakaian kata atau kelompok kata yang bukan arti sebenarnya, melainkan sebagai lukisan yang
berdasarkan persamaan atau perbandingan.

Ciri

menggunakan kata kata kiasan dan terdapat pilihan kata yang menyamakan sesuatu dengan
sesuatu yang lain.

Dalam menyamakan atau membandingkan sesuatu,

majas metafora menggunakan perbandingan langsung tanpa diikuti kata pembanding ​seperti,

bagai, bak,​ atau ​laksana.

Majas metafora itu sendiri masuk dalam kategori majas perbandingan.

What is a metaphor in a poem?

A ​metaphor​ is a comparison between two things that replaces the word or name for one object with
that of another.

Example

Unlike a simile that uses “like” or “as” (you shine like the sun!), a ​metaphor​ does not use these two
words (a famous line from Romeo and Juliet has Romeo proclaiming “Juliet is the sun”).
Example in a poem

The Sun Rising

By ​John Donne

She's all states, and all princes, I

Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,
In that the world's contracted thus.
Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be

“​She's all states, and all princes, I.”

Metaphysical poet ​John Donne was well-known for his use of metaphor throughout his
poetical works.

In his famous work “The Sun Rising,” the speaker scolds the sun for waking up him and his
lover. Among the most ​evocative metaphors in literature, he explains “she is all states, and all
princes, I.” This line demonstrates the speaker’s belief that he and his lover are richer than all
states, kingdoms, and rulers in all the world because of the love that they share.

Other metaphors appear throughout the poem as well. In the following line, the speaker
explains to the sun that compared with his love,

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

If one poet ever mastered the metaphor, that poet has to be ​William Shakespeare​. His poetical
works and his dramas all make extensive use of metaphors.

“Sonnet 18,” also known as “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day,” is an extended
analogy between the love of the speaker and the fairness of the summer season.

He writes that “thy eternal summer,” here taken to mean the love of the subject, “shall not
fade.”
This love poem continues to use metaphor through the final ​stanza​, a rhyming couplet.

Sonnet 18

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

Love in this metaphor takes on the characteristics of the summer, a life-giving force, and a
force that somehow possesses life itself.