Metaphors and similes are two important figures of speech. Pick out the lines from the poem which are metaphorical.

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or a phrase is used in a manner in which it is either not possible in reality or when it is used representative or symbolic of something else.

Examples of use of metaphors in the poem are:

1. “…Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers…”

In the first stanza of the poem, the poet is talking against the general metaphor with which life is associated – that of a dream, and the soul with that of a slumber.

2. “Footprints on the sands of time”

The poet uses a complex metaphor here to depict man’s actions and events of his life as footprints which are left behind in the sands of time as he has walked past it. He says that actions have power enough to make people remember someone even after their death, just like footprints are always left behind when someone walks on sand. He has compared actions to footprint and life to sands.

Similes are figures of speech where one object is compared to another, generally of a different kind, in order to convey the meaning of the prior more dramatically or vividly.

Examples of similes used in the poem are:

1. “Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.”

in the fourth stanza of the poem, the heart is compared to muffled drums, that keep beating in lowered voices on their march towards death. The poet is trying to show how the heart is already prepared for death, yet beats everyday to proceed closer to it.

2. “Be not like dumb and driven cattle!”

In the fifth stanza of the poem, the poet urges the reader to not behave sheepishly when faced with obstacles and difficulties, like some dumb cattle that are driven to graze fields. He uses a simile here to compare the two.