Brazilian postgraduates (N = 6) read a poem and were asked to give verbal protocols of interpreting one of the metaphors in the text. The following elements were identified in the metaphor interpretation process: (1) literal reading stage, (2) the use of the metaphor's ground (form) as a clue to metaphorical meaning, (3) a content-vehicle interaction at the advanced stage of reading, and (4) the similarity between metaphor comprehension process and riddle guessing. (Copyright 1996, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (Z. Dubiel in LLBA 1996, vol. 30, n. 3)