A Semantic Analysis of Similes (Tashibihi) and Metaphors (Isti’arah) of Selected Poems of Al-‘ashriyyah

Abstract

This paper attempts to identify and analyse the use of Arabic metaphors and similes in Al-‘ashriyyah, dealing with religious and social issues. The paper therefore deals with how particular metaphors and similes were employed. The study employs analytical research method. It is established in the paper that many of the metaphors and similes used have religious connotation, and they are strongly connected with particular situations. Quranic themes such as believers, unbelievers; youthful and old age; vicinity and the present of the messengers of death; good deeds and provisions for afterlife are dominant in the work. Flowery words, appropriate similes and metaphors applicable to these themes were supplied. This paper concludes that the authors employed linguistic strategies to achieve both aesthetics and communicative effects that evoke the emotion of the readers. The semantically motivated diction and rhetorical devices used are consistent with natural deposition of the authors as poets.

Key words: Metaphors, similes, Al-‘Ashriyyah, death and lion