1. What traits of a roller coaster does the metaphor 'Life is a roller coaster' transfer to describe life experiences?

2. Why do metaphors rely on figurative language rather than literal comparisons?

1. What does the speaker reject about a crystal staircase, and what does she accept as still applying to her life?

2. How do the specific details of the staircase—tacks, splinters, bare floors, landings, corners, and darkness—develop the extended metaphor and reveal the speaker's perspective?

3. How does extending the metaphor throughout the poem allow Hughes to communicate more about the speaker's perspective than a single metaphor could?

1. How does Wordsworth personify the cloud in the opening line, and how does this personification help readers understand the speaker's emotional state?

2. What human actions do the daffodils perform through personification, and how do these actions connect readers emotionally to the scene?

3. How does the personification of the speaker's heart dancing with the daffodils at the end of the poem demonstrate the emotional impact of the personified images?

1. What key details from the myth of Persephone does Rita Dove reference in her poem, and how do these details connect to the warning in the second stanza?

2. How does the allusion to Persephone's kidnapping function as a warning, and what additional meaning might the grief of Demeter add to the poem's interpretation?

3. How can multiple traits from the original myth transfer to and affect understanding of the poem's meaning?