During the long walk in Chapter 10, JA's use of poetic language really struck me, especially when I got to this phrase: "the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges".

JA doesn't normally write in overly descriptive, poetic, or metaphorical language, yet this chapter is full of it. It makes sense, especially when poor dear Anne finds all the myriad quotations from various poems about autumn running through her head, and indulges this a little--partly to glean some enjoyment from the walk, and maybe partly to keep herself occupied amid all the flirting that is going on :-(

As Anne thinks, many, many poets have tried their hand at describing autumn. It seems to inspire that kind of sensibility, particularly among the Romantic poets, but also earlier ones.

As Anne realizes, the "sweet scenes of autumn" in poetry are often "fraught with the apt analogy of the declining year, with declining happiness, and the images of youth, and hope, and spring, all gone together"--and that, too, is a metaphor for what Anne is thinking and feeling about her own life.

There are many other metaphors in this chapter:

--the fact that it is a long, uphill climb to where a few of the walkers will make discoveries about others in the party

--what Captain Wenthworth says about the hazel nuts when he and Louisa are in the hedgerow

--the places where the farmers have ploughed, showing that even in the decline of the year, they look forward to spring again (and many poems about autumn use a device like this)

--the way the Crofts drive their carriage as a metaphor for their marriage, rattling happily along together with the Admiral driving, but Mrs. Croft 'coolly giving the reins a better direction herself' or'judiciously putting out her hand' to steady him, etc.