Metaphor, allegory and sound

Imagery: colours, brushstrokes, blossoms and shades of green build a picture in your mind.

Metaphor compares without like or as: the garden is a painting, the plot a canvas, the seeds brushstrokes. 'She has a heart of gold' is a metaphor (her heart is gold: she is very kind). 'Her heart did a dance of joy' is personification (a heart acting like a person).

Sound and structure:

• the rhyme scheme is AABB: lines rhyme in pairs (deep/seep, true/hue);
• alliteration repeats a starting consonant sound: 'blossoms bloom'.

Tone, mood, speaker: the tone (the poet's attitude) is appreciative; the mood (the reader's feeling) is joyful; the speaker is a gardener.

Allegory: a story on two levels. On the surface it is a garden. Underneath it can mean life's journey and growth, or harmony in diversity: many colours, one picture.