The author used a beautiful visual analogy to convey pure, unadulterated love. The poet compares the horses' heads touching to swans bowing their necks toward one other, making a heart shape; evidently, the horses adore each other. This image has inspired many artists over the years. Figurative language is used to express something that cannot be said explicitly. It allows for greater depth and understanding between the speaker and the listener. Figurative language is often associated with poetry, but it can be found in everyday speech too. Some examples of figurative language are comparisons, similes, and metaphors. Comparisons are two things that have similar features or traits. For example, the poet could have said that the horses were like swans who had learned to love one another from just seeing them bow their necks toward one another every day for an hour. This would have been a long sentence with many words and not as vivid or explicit as saying they looked like hearts joined together. Similes are sentences where one thing is compared to another thing which has a similar feature. In this case, the horses' eyes would have served as the comparison thing. A simile would have helped explain how the horses came to know each other but also left room for interpretation about what kind of relationship they have since only their eyes could tell us.