A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by employing the words "like" or "as" -also, but less commonly, "if", or "than".

A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object.

The poem uses two similes and a metaphor. Pick them out and explain what the two things have in common in each of these cases.

The poem has very systematically used similes and metaphors to create a contrast between youth and old age. The predominant emotion throughout the poem is the pain of separation and it beautifully depicts the love in a mother-daughter relationship. Simile is used to create a comparison between two different things. The similes used here are “her face ashen like that of a corpse” and “as a late winter’s moon”. The first simile creates a comparison between her mother’s face with a corpse and the word employed to make this comparison is “like”. The second simile employs the word “as” and creates a comparison of her mother with the pale winter’s moon both in their last stages of life. Metaphor is used in the line “the merry children spilling out of their homes”. While driving to the airport the poet turned her attention out of the car’s window to distract herself from the fear of losing her mother. She saw children coming out of their homes and playing merrily a sharp contrast to her ageing mother.