A process for metaphorical criticism.

• Read, scrutinize, examine the entire artifact. 
• Isolate the metaphors within the text, illustration, photograph, whatever the artifact. 
• Search for obvious and subtle substitutions of meaning. 
• Identify tenor and vehicle, effectively analyzing how dissimilar objects share similar characteristics.
• Sort the metaphors according to tenor/vehicle patterns of use within the artifact. 
• Analyze the metaphorical relationships to reveal how their structure may affect the intended audience. 

measure

this stone wrest on riverbank
and cleansed by currents rolled
into form clear and smooth
knocked off the rough and ungainly
to the one who picked it up

and threw it back to river bottom
not skipping wakes and eddies
sank beyond the infiltration of
sun’s light and sky’s blue
blanketed in depositing silt

knew certain a better value
than this
to be crag and surface covered
in this water’s refuse
at mercy to extrinsic force
to ever change and feel a hand again

blind to seasons passing
sole ambient clues to time
so different to a rock
than to any other item of
this rotating possessor

tempests raced with larger grains
and cleaned it clear of aberration
to gather what tiny rayons penetrate
the dust of wet and swift and
pull an image of something far away

and focus on the floor beneath
in the moment’s collaboration
of distance, light and shape
a synthesis of
hope and
color

aided by the water’s surface turned
at depths correct and lucid currents
grew its liberator from the silt from
light’s full spectrum and death’s tip
till free it skipped on
from the place it held so long

in eons one would have to measure
change in shape and purpose found

-e