Hello. You forgot to put the poem to which the question refers. The poem is:
"The girls turning double-dutch
bob weave like boxers pulling
punches, shadowing each other,
sparring across the slack cord
casting parabolas in the air. They
whip quick as an infant's pulse
and the jumper, before she
enters the winking, nods in time
as if she has a notion to share,
waiting her chance to speak. But she's
anticipating the upbeat
like a bandleader counting off
the tune they are about to swing into.
The jumper stair-steps into mid-air
as if she's jumping rope in low-gravity,
training for a lunar mission. Airborne a moment
long enough to fit a second thought in,
she looks caught in the mouth bones of a fish
as she flutter-floats into motion
like a figure in a stack of time-lapse photos
thumbed alive. Once inside,
the bells tied to her shoestrings rouse the gods
who've lain in the dust since the Dutch
acquired Manhattan. How she dances
patterns like a dust-heavy bee retracing
its travels in scale before the hive. How
the whole stunning contraption of girl and rope
slaps and scoops like a paddle boat.
Her misted skin arranges the light
with each adjustment and flex. Now heather-
hued, now sheen, light listing on the fulcrum
of a wrist and the bare jutted joints of elbow
and knee, and the faceted surfaces of muscle,
surfaces fracturing and reforming
like a sun-tickled sleeve of running water.
She makes jewelry of herself and garlands
the ground with shadows."
Answer and Explanation:
The simile and metaphor are figures of speech used to give depth and subjectivity to the text in a poetic way, through comparisons. The simile does this by comparing elements that have nothing in common, but that can be compared to create new meaning. The metaphor, in turn, makes a comparison between two elements that are not the same, but that have a common characteristic that can relate them.
In the poem, the author compares the activity of the forks with things that are difficult to perceive and even accomplish, things that are not normally seen. He does this to show how the activity the girls are doing is difficult and requires strength, concentration and a lot of effort.
The simile and the metaphor can be seen in the lines:
"The girls turning double-dutch
bob weave like boxers pulling
punches, shadowing each other,
sparring across the slack cord
casting parabolas in the air. They
whip quick as an infant's pulse
and the jumper, before she
enters the winking, nods in time
as if she has a notion to share,
waiting her chance to speak. But she's
anticipating the upbeat
like a bandleader counting off
the tune they are about to swing into."
