Shakespeare wrote that “All the world’s a stage”. He wasn’t being literal, though; he was being metaphorical.

Metaphors are used in poetry and other types of creative writing to link two seemingly unrelated things, like God and a fortress as in “a mighty fortress is our God”.

Metaphors are figures of speech similar to similes, but used without the words “like” or “as”. If you’ve ever referred to “that neck of the woods” or to someone who’s “rolling in dough” then you’ve been metaphorical.

Metaphors are used in the same way as similes, although without the words “like” or “as.” If you said someone was as fit as a fiddle, that would be a simile. If you said he looked like a fish, that’s a simile. But if you said “he’s my rock”, then that’s a metaphor.

Metaphorical language is used by writers to make comparisons in an attempt to increase our understanding. You’ll find examples in prose, poetry and song lyrics, such as these lines from Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah:

There’s a blaze of light
In every word

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Or this fantastic metaphor from the poem Fog by Carl Sandburg:

The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

This whole stanza is a metaphor in which fog is given the qualities of a cat, creeping quietly in, surveying the scene and just as silently moving off again. Anyone who’s owned a cat will recognize these characteristics of stealth and independence immediately.

Metaphors litter the volumes of poetry loitering on library shelves across the world. Here are some terrific examples from T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;

Or this powerful image from the poem He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W.B. Yeats;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

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Sometimes the metaphor can be simply put, as Dickens did in A Christmas Carol:

This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want.

Metaphors play an important role in our everyday vocabularies, too. For instance, you might say that this article sucks. Or if you enjoyed reading it, you might say that time flies when you’re having fun.

After a walk on a cold winter’s day, you might say your feet are blocks of ice. Or that you could murder a cup of hot chocolate.

But unlike a vacuum cleaner, an article can’t suck. Time can’t fly, and you can’t kill a beverage. And that’s the power of metaphor: it imparts the qualities of one thing to another, spicing up the language and helping to make the written word more beautiful and dynamic.