Note that 'ears' in the first sentence is used in the primary sense of the word. There are also secondary as well as figurative senses of the word. A secondary sense of 'ear' is 'she has an ear for music', where there is a thread of meaning between the literal or primary sense and the secondary sense of 'being able to hear'. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossilized poetry.
All language is rhetorical, and even the senses are poets.
The driver stepped on the oil . The driver stepped on the gas. The old cowboy kicked the pail . The old cowboy kicked the bucket . In many languages emotions are referred to be idioms involving body parts.