raise your grade in English—next.

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 time—even novelists do—because 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.