This inquiry tries an assay of metaphors in the context of Yoruba cultural discourse. The data for the study cover proverbs and praise poems which were gathered from oral interviews with native speakers and debates with older Yoruba people in Southwest Nigeria. Drawing insights from the framework of Conceptual Metaphor, the paper explores how metaphors act in Yoruba discourse to attain effective linguistic communication. From the data analysed, it distinguishes some categories of cultural metaphors that occur in Yoruba proverbs and praise poems, and underscore that the nature of metaphors in the proverb and praise poems orients to Yoruba sociocultural and philosophical thought. Hence, it is asserted that metaphors do not necessarily have general meanings but rather have specific meanings within particular cultures and communities of use.