“To strut before a wanton, ambling nymph,”
is most perfect in drama-poetic expression. It is exquisite in its
contempt; it is ever visible in its movement; it is ludicrous too. Here
lies the highest triumph of poetry, to do that which ordinary speech
can barely effect in any single sentence—to attain to the most beautiful
expression without a single metaphor; that is, by absolute simplicity of
speech.
Of course, metaphor is a great resource in composition; it involves not
only the fact, but its simile in one and the same epithet.