Figurative language refers to use of words in a way that gives them an extra dimension, an additional meaning then the one intended. This is most often done by using simile, metaphor or personification.
The author here states that he felt like a sheep in a wrong meadow. He uses a comparison, a simile to convey another meaning, to express the feeling of confusion without explicitly writing it, but rather by creating images in our mind to explain his feeling through a use of figurative language.
