“The taking of a regular pattern of plot or character or storyworld or narrative style or any other core component of story–any extending the pattern further. The stretch is the invention at the root of all literary wonder: the marvel that comes from stretching regular objects into metaphors, the dazzle that comes from stretching regular rhythms of speech into poetic meters, and the awe that comes from stretching regular humans into heroes” (Fletcher 17).

Also called: metaphor, poetic meter, repetition