First, simile is when a writer compares two things together while using the word "like" or "as" to connect the two comparisons. Example from the poem "while his rag, like a thunderstorm, ran through the yellow oak" (3-4). It makes us understand that the rag is like lightning that strikes the oak very violently. Next “an elbow that creaked and burst like a branch in a storm” (8-9). This sentence tells us that the elbow of the person, which is spoken of in the poem, cracks and snaps like a branch in the middle of a terrible storm of the simile and the next metaphor simile, metaphor is comparing the two things but without using words "as" or "as". Here's one, "a ball of constriction closed in the fist," describes the woman as having a small, rounded ball, or she might. be of arthritis, in the wrist (6-7). Shortly after this statement is “Now she is dust, and dust is her heart” (9-10). which could turn to dust. So when you keep in mind how the woman could be reduced to dust, this could mean that the woman described is already dead and the speaker is simply talking about what this woman looked like when she was