Figuring Out Metaphors

What is a metaphor and how is it different from other literal and figurative statements? In John R. Searle's "Figuring Out Metaphors", he asks this very question, and explains what a metaphor is before beginning to question what it means and does. A Metaphor enhances and makes the images described by the author more creative and interesting. Searle uses the examples "Sally is a block of ice" and "Sam is a pig" to show the metaphors that are easy to find the literal meaning of while using "Sally is a prime number between 17 and 23" to show a more complex metaphor that would be harder for us to figure out. Metaphors can be simple or complex and it can help give a more vivid idea of what the author intends while using fewer, or better, words then with a simple description.

Billy Collins, "Introduction to Poetry"

In this Poem, Billy Collins is trying to inform the readers that they try too hard to analyze a literary work. He wants them to understand the meaning to the poem itself. Most students probe and dissect poems, but Billy wishes for the students to just enjoy what is on the paper. Reading in line 5 the metaphor, "I say drop a mouse into a poem" then in line 6, "and watch him probe his way out" means that people should be be like a mouse in a maze. Go by what's on the surface.