How to say "He is my spectacles"?

Question

Assume that I am a blind person and am writing an essay about how my brother allows me to see the world (just like spectacles allow people with poor vision to see the world) through his conversations with me. I want to conclude my essay figuratively with the sentence "He is my spectacles." where "he" refers to my brother. The issue is that "spectacles" is plural and so "is" is grammatically incorrect. However, if I say "He are my spectacles.", that just sounds absurd. How can I correct this without changing "spectacles" to another object? For example, "He is the lens through which I see the world." would not be an acceptable solution.

Answer 1

1. Central point: Verbs agree in number with the subject. If the object doesn't agree, that's between it and its own conscience, or logic. But you would not say "he are," no matter what you say next.
2. It's understood that you're using a very poetic construction here, so some liberties of illogic may be forgiven. It is understood that your brother is not literally a pair of eyeglasses. (And yes, there is a poetic punch to the simplicity and brevity of your sentence, which is lost in something hamfisted like "He is like a pair of spectacles for me.")
3. With that understanding, I don't see the harm in equating a singular person with a plural comparison. To find an example from literature, in The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says of his wife "She is my goods, my chattels." As long as your metaphor has been set up to be received and understood, the reader can handle the shift in number just as easily as they handle the comparison to an inanimate object.