An Analysis of Love Metaphors in Ed Sheeran’s Song Lyrics

Yudhi Afrian (Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Riau)
Indah Tri Purwanti (Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Riau)
Maria Safriyanti (Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Riau)

IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature
Vol. 14 No. 2 (2026): IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Lite

This study examines the use of conceptual metaphors in Ed Sheeran’s love-themed song lyrics to understand how emotional meanings are expressed through figurative language. The study aims to classify the metaphors, identify their frequency, and explain their conceptual meanings based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory. A descriptive qualitative design was employed using textual analysis of twenty selected love-themed songs. The lyrics were initially obtained from Genius and subsequently cross-checked with other available lyric sources to ensure consistency. The data were collected through observation and note-taking, followed by metaphor identification, classification, and interpretation. The analysis identified 106 metaphorical expressions categorized into structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors. Structural metaphors were the most dominant, accounting for 53% of the data, followed by ontological metaphors at 34% and orientational metaphors at 13%. The findings show that Ed Sheeran frequently conceptualizes love through dynamic and experiential mappings, particularly journey and unity, while ontological metaphors represent love as a concrete entity that can be held, owned, or contained. Orientational metaphors contribute spatial representations of emotional closeness and intensity. The novelty of this study lies in its systematic examination of conceptual mappings across a corpus of twenty love-themed songs, providing a broader analysis of metaphorical patterns than studies focusing on individual songs or other linguistic features in Sheeran’s work. The findings contribute to the linguistic understanding of how metaphor structures emotional meaning in contemporary song lyrics and may also support the use of song lyrics as authentic materials for teaching metaphor and figurative language in English language learning. Although limited to a selected corpus, this study provides a systematic basis for further research on conceptual metaphors across other artists, songs, and musical genres.