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English Quiz - Metaphors (Questions)

Metaphors light up language by comparing unlike things. In GCSE English, you will spot, explain, and evaluate them, then write original images that fit purpose and audience.

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Fascinating Fact:

Mixed metaphors can sound clumsy. Do not open a can of worms and let the cat out of the bag in one line.

In GCSE English, you study how metaphors shape tone, mood, and meaning. Learn to identify precise comparisons, avoid mixed images in your own writing, and explain effects using brief, well-chosen quotations.

Key Terms

Metaphor: A direct comparison saying one thing is another to suggest shared qualities.
Simile: A comparison using like or as, keeping the two things separate.
Extended metaphor: A comparison developed across a sentence, paragraph, or whole text.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What is a metaphor in GCSE English?

A metaphor is a direct comparison that states one thing is another to create vivid meaning, for example Time is a thief.

How is a metaphor different from a simile?

A metaphor states the comparison directly. A simile uses like or as, such as Her smile was like sunshine.

How do I analyse a metaphor in an exam answer?

Quote the key words, explain the comparison, link the effect to the writer’s purpose and the question, and keep your comment concise.

Try These Related Quizzes

1.

'While horse and hero fell / They that had fought so well / Came thro' the jaws of Death' - What metaphor has Alfred Lord Tennyson used in these lines from his poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'?

[ ]	Horses are heroes
[ ]	Heroes and horses both are falling debris
[ ]	Death is a devouring beast
[ ]	All of the above

2.

'Sky a tense diaphragm / Dusk hung like a backcloth / That shook where a swan swam' - Which metaphor has Seamus Heaney used in these lines from his poem, 'Twice Shy'?

[ ]	Dusk is a theatre
[ ]	Dusk is a photography studio
[ ]	Swans are the dusk
[ ]	The sky is a tense muscle in motionless anticipation

3.

'My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires, and more slow' - Which metaphor has Andrew Marvell used in these lines from his poem 'To His Coy Mistress'?

[ ]	His love is an empire
[ ]	His love is a living, growing organism
[ ]	His love is weak
[ ]	His love is rotten

4.

'I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, / Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. / Leaving behind nights of terror and fear / I rise / Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear / I rise' - Maya Angelou uses which metaphor in these lines from her poem, 'Still I Rise'?

[ ]	The speaker (the narrator) is the night
[ ]	The speaker is fear
[ ]	The speaker is the sea
[ ]	The speaker is the setting sun

5.

'Perhaps you consider yourself an oracle, / Mouthpiece of the dead, or of some god or other. / Thirty years now I have laboured / To dredge the silt from your throat' - Sylvia Plath uses which metaphor in these lines from her poem, 'The Colossus'?

[ ]	The person being addressed is an oracle
[ ]	The person being addressed is a god
[ ]	The speaker (narrator) is a god
[ ]	The throat of the person being addressed is a blocked river channel

6.

'She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young. Now her rouged cheeks and her reddened lips made her seem alive and sleeping very lightly. The curls, tiny little sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head, and her lips were parted.' - What is described metaphorically in this passage about Curley's wife, from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men?

[ ]	Curley's wife's lips
[ ]	Curley's wife's hair
[ ]	Curley's wife's cheeks
[ ]	Curley's wife's eyes

7.

'Bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft tea-cakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.' - What (or who) is described metaphorically in this passage from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

[ ]	The mules
[ ]	The men
[ ]	The collars
[ ]	The ladies

8.

'But soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun! - Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon' - What (or who) does Romeo describe metaphorically in this speech from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

[ ]	The light
[ ]	Juliet
[ ]	The Sun
[ ]	All of the above

9.

'To any who had observed him before he lost his gold, it might have seemed that so withered and shrunken a life as his could hardly be susceptible of a bruise, could hardly endure any subtraction but such as would put an end to it altogether.' - What does George Eliot describe metaphorically in this excerpt from her book, Silas Marner?

[ ]	A man's life
[ ]	A man's gold
[ ]	A robbery
[ ]	A bruise

10.

'With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.' Which of the following is NOT described metaphorically in Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech?

[ ]	Faith
[ ]	Despair
[ ]	A nation
[ ]	A symphony

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Language and structure

English Quiz - Metaphors (Answers)

1.

'While horse and hero fell / They that had fought so well / Came thro' the jaws of Death' - What metaphor has Alfred Lord Tennyson used in these lines from his poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'?

[ ]	Horses are heroes
[ ]	Heroes and horses both are falling debris
[x]	Death is a devouring beast
[ ]	All of the above

2.

'Sky a tense diaphragm / Dusk hung like a backcloth / That shook where a swan swam' - Which metaphor has Seamus Heaney used in these lines from his poem, 'Twice Shy'?

[ ]	Dusk is a theatre
[ ]	Dusk is a photography studio
[ ]	Swans are the dusk
[x]	The sky is a tense muscle in motionless anticipation

The sky is metaphorically the diaphragm, or the muscle which controls breathing - this image magnifies the tension felt by the two characters in the poem: it is not just they who hold their breath; it is the entire sky waiting in stillness

3.

'My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires, and more slow' - Which metaphor has Andrew Marvell used in these lines from his poem 'To His Coy Mistress'?

[ ]	His love is an empire
[x]	His love is a living, growing organism
[ ]	His love is weak
[ ]	His love is rotten

'Weak' and 'rotten' would not be metaphors. Remember that a metaphor is where one thing is described as something else. 'Weak' and 'rotten' are adjectives, not things (nouns)

4.

'I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, / Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. / Leaving behind nights of terror and fear / I rise / Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear / I rise' - Maya Angelou uses which metaphor in these lines from her poem, 'Still I Rise'?

[ ]	The speaker (the narrator) is the night
[ ]	The speaker is fear
[x]	The speaker is the sea
[ ]	The speaker is the setting sun

Metaphors in poetry can work on several levels at the same time. It is also possible to use different metaphors for the same thing - if you read these lines closely, it appears that the speaker is the rising sun, as well as the sea

5.

'Perhaps you consider yourself an oracle, / Mouthpiece of the dead, or of some god or other. / Thirty years now I have laboured / To dredge the silt from your throat' - Sylvia Plath uses which metaphor in these lines from her poem, 'The Colossus'?

[ ]	The person being addressed is an oracle
[ ]	The person being addressed is a god
[ ]	The speaker (narrator) is a god
[x]	The throat of the person being addressed is a blocked river channel

What does it mean, metaphorically, to have a throat blocked by silt? The person being addressed here is unlikely to be a good communicator - the speaker says she has helpfully tried to unblock his throat, but the effort has been fruitless

6.

'She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young. Now her rouged cheeks and her reddened lips made her seem alive and sleeping very lightly. The curls, tiny little sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head, and her lips were parted.' - What is described metaphorically in this passage about Curley's wife, from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men?

[ ]	Curley's wife's lips
[x]	Curley's wife's hair
[ ]	Curley's wife's cheeks
[ ]	Curley's wife's eyes

Curls that are 'tiny, little sausages' make a striking image

7.

'Bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft tea-cakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.' - What (or who) is described metaphorically in this passage from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

[ ]	The mules
[ ]	The men
[x]	The collars
[ ]	The ladies

The ladies are described with an unusual, and highly-effective, simile - they are like tea-cakes

8.

'But soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun! - Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon' - What (or who) does Romeo describe metaphorically in this speech from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

[ ]	The light
[ ]	Juliet
[ ]	The Sun
[x]	All of the above

Romeo's speech is playful - the light is the east, Juliet is the Sun, the sunrise 'kills' the Moon

9.

'To any who had observed him before he lost his gold, it might have seemed that so withered and shrunken a life as his could hardly be susceptible of a bruise, could hardly endure any subtraction but such as would put an end to it altogether.' - What does George Eliot describe metaphorically in this excerpt from her book, Silas Marner?

[x]	A man's life
[ ]	A man's gold
[ ]	A robbery
[ ]	A bruise

10.

'With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.' Which of the following is NOT described metaphorically in Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech?

[ ]	Faith
[ ]	Despair
[ ]	A nation
[x]	A symphony

Faith is both a tool and the art of a composer; despair is a mountain in which can be found the 'stone' of hope; the nation is a cacophonous noise, while brotherhood is described metaphorically as a symphony