A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. Metaphor is a type of analogy and is closely related to other rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via association, comparison or resemblance including allegory, hyperbole, and simile.
"I had butterflies in my stomach”
A controlling metaphor is an expanded metaphor that dominates or organizes an entire poem. For example, metaphors of movement structure John Donne´s "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" (1633). In Indictment of Senior Officers, Sharon Olds uses a controlling metaphor of war to describe growing up in her childhood family (see below). What are examples of her use of the controlling metaphor? Think about ways she could have said things instead without the controlling metaphor.
Exercise: Write a poem using a controlling metaphor. Here are some ideas: trains, money, peanut butter, dogs. Olds uses war as an unsafe, dangerous place. You could use one of these in any way (e.g., trains are fast, sleeping dogs, etc)