Abstract: Plant metaphors had been used in Shakespeare's sonnets to express abstract and obscure emotions.The Book of Songs·Guofeng also contains numerous plant metaphors which were used to vividly describe the poets' emotional world. Metaphor is cognitive in native and it is a way of thinking which is expressed by language. From cognitive aspect, this paper classifies plant metaphors of Shakespeare's sonnets and The Book of Songs·Guofeng into three categories: “love flower” metaphors, “weed” metaphors and particular metaphors of each work, then it analyses the different map of source domain and target domain of plant metaphors between China and the West and explore reasons. Study finds that though plant metaphors of the two works possess differences, they still own common implications, which could produce metaphorical coherence. Besides, human's body experience (the order of recognize things and features of body recognition) are similar, therefore, authors at home and abroad could understand each other's' poetic meaning at some degree.

Key words: Shakespeare's sonnets, The Book of Songs-Guofeng, plant metaphor, source domain, target domain, the profound meaning of poets