" (line 5) This is also a very descriptive image in which Olds uses a simile and a metaphor. She compares her own fertility to her daughter's, and then uses a metaphor to describe how her daughter's body is ready to literally burst into womanhood. Olds concludes this poem with the mother's realization that her daughter is replacing her and that this is just another one of nature's occurrences.
In Shakespeare's sonnet, he also uses metaphors and similes to enhance the imagery. The first is very important to the poem because it gives the reader the understanding that he is growing old. "When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang/ Upon those boughs which shake against the cold." (line 2-3) Shakespeare feels like he is a tree who is in the late fall, early winter of his life. There aren't many leaves left on the tree and there aren't many years left in Shakespeare's life. In the next metaphor Shakespeare describes himself as twilight. "In me thou seest the twilight of such day/ As after sunset fadeth in the west;/ Which by and by black night doth take away,/ Death's second self that seals up all in rest." (line 5-8) This image is used to describe the fading of his youth, like the fading of a day. The last image Shakespeare uses describes how is like a dying fire. "In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,/ That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,/ As the deathbed whereon it must expire,/ Consumed with that which it was nourished by." (line 9-12) This is a very deep image with significant meaning. The ashes caused by the youth of the fire are extinguishing it. This shows how Shakespeare's youth is causing himself to fade, and once the fire is out, just like Shakespeare's life, it can never be started again. He ends the sonnet with a couplet that asks the listener to love him while he's still here because like the fire, he"ll be gone soon. This sonnet is basically three metaphors that describe Shakespeare's fading youth and approaching death.
