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  • Would you be shocked if I told you that you use metaphor every day? I'll prove it to youand

  • raise your grade in Englishnext.

  • If you called your brother a pig today, congratulations! You're a poet!

  • OK, that's probably a bit of a stretch, but did you know that when you're busy telling

  • your friend that so-and-so is such a pig, you're busy using metaphor?

  • That's because a metaphor is a comparison of two dissimilar things using some form of

  • the verb "to be."

  • For example, "He is a pig."

  • Poets use metaphor all the timeeven novelists dobecause the beauty of this literary device

  • is that using metaphor to link two things that would otherwise be completely unrelated

  • helps to create new meanings. It allows us see things in fresh and surprising ways.

  • Metaphor is cool, too, because it's compact. What I mean is, you can pack a lot of meaning

  • into one little comparison.

  • Again: He is a pig.

  • You could share the details of your brother's disgusting behaviors.

  • You could list the reasons for your displeasure. But "He is a pig" gets the point across in

  • a snap. Don't you think?

  • Just don't let your brother hear you saying that, otherwise (metaphor alert!) you just

  • might be toast.

Would you be shocked if I told you that you use metaphor every day? I'll prove it to youand

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