Birches

Mention two metaphors or comparisons made by Robert Frost in the poem, Birches.

Reverie poem book

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As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells 10
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—

Enamel is a metaphor for ice, and in addition shed is a metaphor for melting.

When he says that he "dreams of going back" to being a "swinger of birches," he is using that image as a metaphor for a state of being, for a time of life (old age), and for the condition of youth.

And so I dream of going back to be.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

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Birches