For instance, you may have heard of the phrase “walking on egg shells” to describe how it feels to be around an emotionally difficult person. If you take a metaphorical phrase literally, it should sound bizarre. Essentially, a metaphor is a phrase that describes something in terms of being something else in a way that is not literally true, but helps explain a deeper emotion or underlying feeling behind the language. The example used in the dictionary definition is to describe sadness as “falling through a trap door or depression.” The idea is that the sad person is not literally falling through a trapdoor, it’s only a poetic use of language to hyper-emphasize the emotion being sad. The dictionary defines a metaphor as “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.” (Google Dictionary). Metaphors are a form of figurative language, as opposed to being literal. Metaphoric language provides an excellent way to communicate your thoughts, ideas, and emotions in a more profound way, transcending the banal ordinary use of plain language. In this article, we’re taking a look at how to incorporate metaphors into your lyric writing.
