Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

From the Introduction,
Chapter 29 -- The Underground River as Metaphor
CHAPTER 29
THE UNDERGROUND RIVER AS METAPHOR
A model is an expression of something we wish to understand in terms of something we think
we do understand.
This chapter looks at underground rivers not as an aspect of setting, fictional or otherwise, but as
a literary instrument in which some combination of
"Underground"
"Subterranean"
etc.
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"River"
"Steam"
"Waters"
etc.
occupies the second clause of modeling's two-clause definition.
Insertion of the adverb "like" or "as" changes a metaphor into a simile,
Such-and -such is an underground river -- a metaphor,
Such-and -such is like an underground river -- a simile,
but both are said to be metaphoric. In quotations to follow, we'll highlight the underground river
clause in CAPITAL LETTERS.
We'll begin with three explanations of our metaphor.
It has been noted as the peculiar characteristic of our time, that old institutions are continually
giving way to new opinions, and that things of antiquity have "fallen on evil days." Such has not
been the case with the Lumber Troop: -- to make use of a new simile, their course has been
like that of an UNDERGROUND STREAM till now, when Sir John Key has discovered all their
merit, and brought them before the wondering world in such a way that nobody can tell the
importance or the consequence thereof. -- Edward Brewster, The Lumber Trooper: A Chivalric
Poem, Written After the Most Approved Models (1832)
The simile wasn't in fact "new" in 1832, but apparantly it wasn't hackneyed.
From the contemporary internet,
As a British Venus, Goddess of Gardens, she is the Flower Bride; at her Holy wells, mainly to
be found in the North of the country, she is guardian of the underground streams that carry the
sacred waters. These UNDERGROUND STREAMS have themselves become a metaphor for
the secret continuation of sacred wisdom. -- Caroline Wise, "Elen of the Ways," internet
posting, 2009
Humans have always drawn on a rich UNDERGROUND RIVER of subconscious wisdom,
which sometimes emerges as metaphors, fairy tales, fables, myth, legends, or Holy Scripture. --
Jeanne M. Wiger, LedToGold.com internet posting
Following are underground river metaphors and similes excerpted from a variety of sources. To
group them, we suggest interpretations, but the creative merit of the construction is that the
meaning ultimately rests with the reader.
Anger
It has become an UNDERGROUND RIVER, this populist anger about the effects of economic
globalization. -- "One World, Ready or Not, The Manic Logic of Global Capital," Washington
Monthly, April 1997
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