Understanding metaphor: A cognitive approach focusing on identification and interpretation of metaphors in poetry

This study aims to investigate metaphor in poetry from a cognitive perspective. Thepresence, interpretation and effect of metaphors in poetry were investigated. Besides, itaimed to find out whether the fourth-year students at the ELT Department of ÇukurovaUniversity can identify the metaphors in two selected English poems. Additionally, itexplored the processes participants went through while they interpreted these metaphorsand the linguistic metaphors they built to express the target domains in Turkish. Whenthe data gathered via `Think and Feel Aloud? and `Interview? techniques, were analyzedit was seen that participants were affected by some factors such as grammatical structure,degree of conventionality, context and cultural background while interpreting themetaphors. Additionally, the view that `Blending Theory? is a more advantageous way tounderstand especially `original? metaphors in poetry was supported with the results.Theresults also emphasized that more importance must be given to understanding metaphorssince it is of vital importance to understand the meaning of metaphors in order to arriveat a sound interpretation.Key Words : Metaphor, Cognition, Poetry