Poets use striking imaginative comparisons to go beyond the resources of literal speech. They take us into a world of intense images, but often there is more to the image than what is apparent on the surface. When a poet says, "The bird of love is on the wing," the line is meant to call up a vivid image before the mind"s eye. But the poem is not literally talking about a bird. Instead, it compares the feeling of falling in love to the exhilaration a bird might experience in flight