What metaphors are used in Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels?

Anne Michaels' prose reveals that she is a poet. Scarcely a paragraph can be found lacking a rich simile or metaphor or evocation of sights, sounds, and smells. The text is emotive: a young boy scared witless but somehow knowing how to survive, but told through the eyes of the same person who has grown into a scholar, knowing about the preservative nature of peat.