How does the author use metaphor in the epic, The Song of Igor’s Campaign?

The author gives a hint at the beginning of the metaphoric style of his work. He writes that when Boyan wanted to recall some deed of old, "He set ten falcons upon a flock of swans, / and the one first overtaken, / sang a song first" (21-24). Seven lines later, the author explains his metaphor: Boyan did not literally do this, the ten falcons were his ten fingers and the flock of swans were the strings of his musical instrument.

Many more metaphors are used in the epic. One of the most striking is the metaphor of battle as farming. For example, Oleg "sowed the land with arrows" (236). The metaphor is repeated in lines 278-79, where the earth "was sown with bones / and irrigated with gore." The crop that these seeds produce is "grief" throughout Russia. The metaphor recurs in extended form when the author recalls the fate of Vseslav at the battle at the river Nemiga. Warriors' severed heads are "spread sheaves," the threshing implements are steel swords, and the threshing floor is where lives are laid out. Souls are "winnowed" from bodies and the banks of the river are sown with bones (651-58).