This dissertation analyses the identity of the literary metaphor. It is based in the general Conceptual Theory of Metaphors started by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in the 80`s decade - they set the metaphor as a basic cognitive principle, as a mechanism that structures the knowledge and the experience which goes beyond the literature field. Recognizing along with Lakoff and Johnson the presence of the metaphorical phenomena in our lives, this study interested us to think about what could distinguish the presence of the metaphor specifically in literature. Our central objective here was to contribute to test the cognitive hypothesis showed by George Lakoff and Mark Turner, in a specific book which studies the literary metaphor, More than cool reason (1989). We analyzed a set of metaphors in the Romance d`A Pedra do Reino e o Príncipe do Sangue do Vai-e- Volta, by Ariano Suassuna. This analysis shows that Lakoff and Turner hypothesis, which the generalizations governing poetic metaphorical expressions are not in language, but in thought: they are general mappings across conceptual domains; they are creative extensions of these mappings. As the locus of metaphor is not in language at all, but in the way we conceptualize one mental domain in terms of another. The literary metaphors are extensions, combinations or elaborations of the ontological, structural and orientational metaphors that lead, in a basic level and in a general way, our language, thought and actions.