What is an example of figurative language in the epic, The Song of Igor’s Campaign?

A simile is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two unalike things that resemble each other in one aspect. In this epic, the comparisons are usually made between humans and animals or birds. Boyan is compared to a nightingale and an eagle; warriors on both sides are likened to gray wolves; the Kumans as they advance are like "dispersed swans." When Igor's wife laments his fate, she is compared to a cuckoo, and when Igor escapes from captivity, he speeds to the reeds by the river "like an ermine," settles on the water "like a white duck," then runs "like a demon wolf" and flies "like a falcon" (751-59). The effect of these similes is to suggest the close connection between the human and the natural world, which is one of the themes of the epic.