: Re: Is using an 'empty' metaphor considered bad style? I just had this sentence off my head: A crown of fire spread through the country consuming everything on its way. What I mean by

@Annie587

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It's an "Analogy"
Similes and metaphors are types of analogy. It's still a metaphor because of the sentence structure (it's not a simile).
When the comparison is really extreme it's called an analogy. The brain has to "reach out" to synaptic connections find the cross-reference how these things are alike, and eventually offers up shapes and colors, like your fire-crown.
You have an instinct that is telling you these words are associated.
It's a good instinct. Keep listening!
It is not "empty", it is loaded with vivid imagery, but also other (surreptitious?) cross-referenced associations like concentration of power, danger, and eminent domain. My brain was delighted. Thank you!
Compare to this example from the analogy link:

Night Clouds (By Amy Lowell)
The white mares of the moon rush along the sky
Beating their golden hoofs upon the glass Heavens.

Which plays with associative imagery and motion, but makes your head hurt if you try to picture it too literally (horses, upside-down, tapping on a class ceiling with their feet).

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