Is this a good metaphor...?

Question

Can you please compare these to metaphor/images

"And the feasting winds to the blossoms call"

To

"If music be the food of love play on"

The first one is mine, the second one is shakespear's.

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Answer 1

Hi Lu,

Ok, I may have more questions than answers on these but I'll give it a shot. Your first metaphor, the "feasting winds" does leave me a little confused. I have to assume that you mean the winds "consume" something, but I am not sure how to square the idea of eating/consuming with wind. I could understand something that consumes like fire, or even ice, but with wind, since it does not actually consume anything it leaves me struggling to reconcile.

The second metaphor, the "blossom's call" is another that is close, but needs more context. I assume that by a "blossom's call" you mean the feeling of having one's attention called by a blossom. The call is not literally a sound, but a reaction that is undeniable on the part of the called. Simply put, I cannot help but look at the blossom. I like this image and would like to understand why I can't deny it.

As for the second example, "...Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die." This is from Twelfth Night, one of my favorite plays. This is a simple If/then statement reworded as "If music be the food of love (then) play on." The "then" is omitted to maintain the meter. The metaphor here, music is the food of love then has several parts. Music as food, love having food and music functioning as a need of love. This is so interesting, and something I never dwelt upon, but the complex metaphor makes the concept richer.

Thanks for sharing this one.  

Answer 2

"And the feasting winds to the blossoms call"

with this one I have an immediate image of a spring time storm, with destructive winds ravaging the blossoms of an orchard, destroying their simple beauty, drawn to their place as a siren's call or beckoning

no context required, that is simply what hit my brain when I read it

I'll not even touch the second as I have most likely said enough for now.