Pea Brain
The young student who is slowly transformed into a lover of poetry and a poet himself becomes obsessed. He explains how sometimes a person obsesses by thinking about something over and over again: "until your brain feels like a squashed pea." This is a simile that seeks to explain the process of what happens to a mind that becomes so focused on something out of their control that the brain almost becomes useless for anything else. The thing which is squeezing his brain is hearing back from a famous poet whom he has invited to speak at his school. The machinery of fame is cranking its gears very slowly.
Tiger, Tiger
The student is exposed to famous poems by his teacher, including one by William Blake.
"Some of the tiger sounds
are still in my ears
like drums
beat-beat-beating."
The simile in this case right references Blake's poem. This usage illustrates with fine subtlety how the appreciation of poetry is slowly developing in the boy. He is already creating literary allusions on a small scale.
Dogs
The young poet recalls going to pick out a dog at the animal shelter. As he walks past the cage filled with hopeful potential adoptees, he notes that dogs behave
"as if they were saying
Me! Me! Choose me!
I’m the best one"
This simile is an example of personification. It is metaphorically foreshadowing the emotional bond which will develop between dog and boy. The nature of this bond will prove to be integral to the narrative and the boy's development as a poet.
Brains–a–Popping
The teacher introduces the student to "concrete poetry." These are poems that take the form of their subject. For instance, he describes a poem about an apple that was shaped like an apple.
"My brain was pop-pop-popping
when I was looking at those poems."
This metaphorical description of how this type of poetry affected him further illustrates his growing poetic sensibility. Rather than relying on simple language to describe his senses, he is beginning to reach out instinctively toward literary devices like onomatopoeia.
Bulletin Board
The announcement that a famous poet is coming to speak to the class gets every student excited about writing poems.
"The bulletin board
looks like it’s
blooming words
with everybody’s poems"
The young boy by this point just naturally engages poetic metaphor. This simile describing the outpouring of poetic inspiration reveals that even in conversational observation he has developed a natural tendency to describe with aesthetic flair even the most mundane of objects.
