The given line "How to Eat a Poem" is an example of a hyperbole. Hyperbole is a figure of speech that uses exaggeration or overstatement for emphasis, but is not meant to be taken literally. Here, it is exaggerated that a poem can be eaten. But if you take it literally, poems should not be eaten. It is not a metaphor nor simile because no comparison is made. Neither personification because it human characteristics are not attributed to it.
It was Ahab's obsession with the past.
Did the class teacher punish him?
Answer:
I believe it's a metaphor, although there's a possibility that it's an idiom.
Actually scratch that it's a metaphor.
