Chelsea S. answered • 02/09/22
Patient, Experienced, and Knowledgable Language Arts Teacher
Hi Olivia!
There are many elements in play here, but let's take it piece by piece. The first piece, "Her mind in torment", already tells us what the simile is going to compare. We know that she is facing some inner struggle. Next, we see the piece, "wheeling like some lion at bay". When we think of a lion, we think of a powerful creature. The term, "at bay", means to keep something at a distance. So already, we see that she is facing some struggle that she is trying to keep at a distance. The last piece, "dreading songs of hunters closing their cunning ring around him for the finish", insinuates that this struggle is closing in on her. Even though she is trying to keep her distance from this inner struggle she is facing, it is inevitable. We can see this through the simile comparing the hunters to the lions - The lion is trying to keep the hunters at a distance, but they are closing in on him and soon enough, he will be captured. In this simile, the inner struggle is the lion, and the hunter represents the fate of that struggle.
