English metaphores, HELP! Hello, I was reading some stuff and I found these metaphors, I tried to understand them but these are particularly difficult, can anyone help me understand them, please? Here

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Wendy

English metaphores, HELP! Hello, I was reading some stuff and I found these metaphors, I tried to understand them but these are particularly difficult, can anyone help me understand them, please? Here they are: 1. The light flows into the bowl of the midnight sky, violet, amber and rose. 2. Men court not death when there are sweets still left in life to taste. 3. In capitalism, money is the life blood of society but charity is the soul. 4. Whose world is but the trembling of a flare, / And heaven but as the highway for a shell, 5. Fame is the fragrance of heroic deeds, / Of flowers of chivalry and not of weeds! 6. So I sit spinning still, round this decaying form, the fine threads of rare and subtle thought. 7. And swish of rope and ring of chain / Are music to men who sail the main. 8. Still sits the school-house by the road, a ragged beggar sunning. 9. The child was our lone prayer to an empty sky. 10. Blind fools of fate and slaves of circumstance, / Life is a fiddler, and we all must dance.

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التصحيحات · 10

English metaphor(e)s, HELP!

Hello, I was reading some stuff, and I found these metaphors; I tried to understand them but these are particularly difficult. Can anyone help me understand them, please?
Here they are:
1. The light flows into the bowl of the midnight sky, violet, amber and rose. (I honestly have no idea, not the slightest clue)
2. Men court not death when there are sweets still left in life to taste. (Commenter is correct for #2/3)
3. In capitalism, money is the life blood of society but charity is the soul.
4. Whose world is but the trembling of a flare, / And heaven but as the highway for a shell,

life is fleeting, but heaven lasts forever
5. Fame is the fragrance of heroic deeds, / Of flowers of chivalry and not of weeds!

fame/popularity comes from acting in a righteous, wholesome manner, not from being a wicked/malicious person.
6. So I sit spinning still, round this decaying form, the fine threads of rare and subtle thought.

7. And swish of rope and ring of chain / Are music to men who sail the main.

these are sounds that might not be too "friendly" to most people, as rope/chains are associated with prison; however, here they are used with a "sailor", of sorts, so the point of this may be to say that everything has someone who appreciates it.
8. Still sits the school-house by the road, a ragged beggar sunning.

This may be used to critique the education system; it is heavily reliant on donations(taxes), like a beggar, and its methods are out-dated or "dried out".
9. The child was our lone prayer to an empty sky.

The "empty sky" means lack of a god, so a child, in this case, is the only true hope for something to happen.
10. Blind fools of fate and slaves of circumstance, / Life is a fiddler, and we all must dance.

This means that we tend to limit ourselves and our goals by how we "expect" our life to turn out, instead of truly fighting for something better. 2nd: This seems to me to be along the lines of "life does what it wants, and we need to either join in and take advantage of it or we will be left behind.

As you can see, many of my answers were "open", meaning, I did not give strict interpretations. This is the beautiful thing about metaphors, they can be interpreted by each person in a different way, because every person has had different experiences or opinions. These were all extremely advanced metaphors; I assure you, I have taken 3 years of University-level english courses, and I was barely exposed to similar metaphors. There is no true need to know these, even as a native, but if you enjoy them, by all means, continue to discover more! I would focus on more simple metaphors and idioms, which are used on a day-to-day basis in English speaking countries.

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9. THE CHILD WAS OUR LONE PRAYER TO AN EMPTY SKY. -- I wasn’t able to find the poem that this is from. Without the context, I can’t tell who the “child” is and who the speakers are. But the fact that they say they’re praying to “an empty sky” seems to indicate that they don’t believe there is anyone up there listening-- they don’t believe there is a God, or they don’t believe he is listening. 10. BLIND FOOLS OF FATE AND SLAVES OF CIRCUMSTANCE, / LIFE IS A FIDDLER, AND WE ALL MUST DANCE. -- This is a reference to medieval times, when a “fool” (also known as a jester, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester) was someone in a king’s court who would dance and entertain the guests. Often, the jester was the king’s servant and couldn’t go do something else if he wanted to. This was his only option. This line is saying in life, we are all like court jesters who have no personal freedom. Whatever our fate is, that is how our life will turn out (“blind fools of fate”) and we have no control over our circumstances (“slaves of circumstance”). Just like the court jester had no choice but to dance along to the music (often played by a “fiddler”, that is, someone who plays the fiddle, a small violin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddle), so also we, as humans, have no choice but to go along with whatever our fate in life is. I hope this helps. I respect that you are reading poetry. It is one of my favorite things to read, but very hard to understand even for a native speaker. Good for you! Good luck.

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6. SO I SIT SPINNING STILL, ROUND THIS DECAYING FORM, THE FINE THREADS OF RARE AND SUBTLE THOUGHT. -- The poet is drawing an analogy here: just as spiders and silk-worms weave webs from threads, he is “weaving” this writing from his thoughts. “Rare” could mean unique and beautiful, and poetry is often “subtle” in its language (not stating things directly, but rather implying things and drawing metaphors, etc.) 7. AND SWITCH OF ROPE AND RING OF CHAIN / ARE MUSIC TO MEN WHO SAIL THE MAIN. -- This poem is about sailing. Sailors love to sail, so the sounds they hear on a ship (“the swish of rope” and the “[ringing sound] of a chain”) are like music their ears. Have you ever heard that phrase, “it’s like music to my ears?” It’s a way of saying, “I’m so glad to hear it. Hearing it makes me happy.” The “main” is short for the main mast of a ship (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(sailing), the second picture) 8. STILL SITS THE SCHOOL-HOUSE BY THE ROAD, A RAGGED BEGGAR SUNNING. -- In English, the verb “sunning yourself” means sitting outside in the sunlight. It’s something that wealthy people do for leisure-- sit outside on the beach, try to get tan, etc. So it’s sort of poking fun at that, because this beggar probably has no other choice-- he has to sit outside, because is probably homeless. A “school-house” is a building which is just one room (and usually just had one teacher) where kids attended school in rural towns.

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1. THE LIGHT FLOWS INTO THE BOWL OF THE MIDNIGHT SKY, VIOLET, AMBER, AND ROSE. -- This poem by Robert Service is about an area in the far north of Canada, near the North Pole. I suspect that this line is talking about the Aurora Borealis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora), a beautiful display of light in the “midnight sky” which is only visible near the North Pole. 2. MEN COURT NOT DEATH WHEN THERE ARE SWEETS STILL LEFT IN LIFE TO TASTE. -- We don’t want to die when there are still "sweet" things in life worth living for (such as family, love, or activities we enjoy). 3. IN CAPITALISM, MONEY IS THE LIFE BLOOD OF SOCIETY BUT CHARITY IS THE SOUL. -- Money is needed to make the economy run--it is its lifeblood. But this can be driven by greed, and can cause the unlucky ones to be in poverty. Charity is driven by compassion and selflessness rather than greed. It reflects humans’ better side: their “soul”, their morality and ethics. 4. WHOSE WORLD IS BUT THE TREMBLING OF A FLARE, / AND HEAVEN BUT AS THE HIGHWAY FOR A SHELL -- This poem by Wilfred Owen is talking about the horrors of war. In warzone, your world is full of fire and explosions (“the trembling of a flare”) and you see bombs (shells) flying across the sky (“heaven”) as if they were speeding down a highway. 5. FAME IS THE FRAGRANCE OF HEROIC DEEDS, / OF FLOWERS OF CHIVALRY AND NOT OF WEEDS! -- I’m not completely sure about this one, but I think it’s saying that fame is something you have to earn by doing good deeds (“heroic deeds”). The person who deserves fame is someone who is respectful and serves others (“chivalry”). The author compares chivalry to “flowers”, something good and sweet-smelling; so “weeds” probably means whatever the opposite of chivalry is: being self-centered, greedy, disrespectful, etc.

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I'll be honest here, if anyone said any of this in everyday conversation I'd say "Speak English man!" (other than #3 that is something one could say if they were pontificating). They are all things that you will really only ever see written in novels, and I'm not talking #1 New York Times bestsellers.

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