Theory Of Poetic Metaphor

This paper attempts to delve into points of nature of poetry by way of comparison and contrast between the status of metaphor in China and in the west. The first and second parts of this paper are to summarize studies on metaphor in the west, to come to deem metaphor as one intrinsic property of poetry after inquiring into the relation between poetic cognition and metaphoric cognition. Thence, the comparison of traditional Chinese Bixing thinking and metaphoric cognition. At the end of this paper Zhuangzi would be taken as an example to illustrate poetic cognition. Metaphor is a way of cognition that guides the unknown to known. It is direct and analytical, with subjectivity and arbitrariness. Therefore, such cognition could well be polysemous. It is unitary of the internal and external of commonsensical world. Thereby, it tends to bring about effect of estrangement. The correctness of such cognition is based on the truth embodied in everything. Metaphor is one nature of poetry. Poetic cognition is another path to truth other than philosophized cognition.