A
passage in the 'Prometheus Unbound,' of Shelley, displays the power
of the metaphor to great advantage:
"Methought among the lawns together
We wandered, underneath the young gray dawn,
And multitudes of dense white fleecy clouds
Were wandering, in thick flocks along the mountains
_Shepherded_ by the slow unwilling wind."
This last expression is remarkable for the distinctness with which
it realizes the features of the scene: bringing the mind, as it
were, by a bound to the desired conception.
43. But a limit is put to the advantageous use of the Metaphor,
by the condition that it must be sufficiently simple to be understood
from a hint. Evidently, if there be any obscurity in the meaning
or application of it, no economy of attention will be gained; but
rather the reverse. Hence, when the comparison is complex, it is
usual to have recourse to the Simile. There is, however, a species
of figure, sometimes classed under Allegory, but which might, perhaps,
be better called Compound Metaphor, that enables us to retain the
brevity of the metaphorical form even where the analogy is intricate.
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