Hello there! I hope that you have been having an enjoyable week. Today I have a poem for you. It is called What is the Sun? and is written by Wes Magee. Have a read through it. If you feel confident enough go ahead and read it aloud.

What is the Sun?

the Sun is an orange dinghy

sailing across a calm sea

it is a gold coin

dropped down a drain in Heaven

the Sun is a yellow beach ball

kicked high into the summer sky

it is a red thumb-print

on a sheet of pale blue paper

the Sun is a milk bottle’s gold top

floating in a puddle

This poem has a lot of metaphors for the sun. A metaphor is something described as if it were something else. It is like a simile but does not include the words like or as.

The simplest form of metaphor is: “The [first thing] is a [second thing].” For example, one metaphor you often hear people say is “my father is a rock.” They don’t actually mean that their father is a grey piece of stone in their garden. They mean that there father is strong and reliable, just like a rock is strong and reliable because it takes a lot to make it change size and shape.

How many metaphors can you spot in the poem above about the sun? You might even like to make a list of them.

If you would like some practice with metaphors, why not try some of the following activities:

• rewrite one of the metaphors in the poem above changing the metaphor into a simile
• write a few sentences about one of the metaphors above explaining what the author meant
• use the pattern of the poem to create your own poem filled with metaphors – here are some titles that might inspire your poem”
• What is a tree?
• What is the rain?
• What is a cloud?