Get Up!
Most of the use of metaphorical imagery in the poem takes the form of a simile. The descriptive comparisons afforded by this literary device makes it quite useful for creating a sense of fantasy through the recurrence of limiters upon the reality of what is being described: all those “as” and “likes” create a distance that allows for suspension of disbelief. The language is appropriately simple for the maintenance of a sense of realistic description:
“I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,”
Traveling Salesman
Ironic humor is inserted into the proceedings when the narrator describes the identifying object which makes it clear this visitor in the night is not here to take, but to give. A bit of metaphorical imagery compares him to the equivalent of a door-to-door salesman. Which he obviously is not:
“A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.”
Eyewitness Account
The narrator provides a rare eyewitness account of the visitation of St. Nick. In fact, thanks primarily to his first-person account, we are left with the most tangible description of this person otherwise known as Santa Claus from that period:
“His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;”
Christmas Symbols
Symbols of Christmas are interjected now and then, but given a little tweak through the tool of the simile. The witness account also includes the rare vision of St. Nick’s manner of carrying out his mission once inside. The smoking of a pipe while conducting his rituals is one aspect of the poem that never really quite became central to the mythic portrait:
“The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;”
The Iconic Image
What did most definitely go on to become iconic in the imagery of Santa Claus as a result of this poem is his anatomical physique. Aside from the white beard, the single most identifiable aspect of the character is his jovial obesity:
“He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,”
