6. Analyze the figurative language: Love is a young green willow / shimmering at the bare wood's edge.
What it means is that

This is a metaphorical use of the young tree to compare with this indispensable human emotion called "love."

Thus, love requires nurturing, watering, manuring, and tender care to bear fruits.  It may start at the edge of life, where it finds itself initially, but it must be tenderly nurtured for growth and fruitfulness to result.

Read more about the use of metaphor as a figurative expression at link

Answer and Explanation:

This is a metaphor because you're comparing love to a willow tree without using the words "like" or "as".

What this is saying is that love is just like a young tree: it will blossom into a strong element, despite any type of environment it's in. For example, here it says that love is like a willow tree at "the bare wood's edge". Even though the atmosphere is relatively gloomy, there's a certainty that love will persist and bloom.

Hope this helps!

source text: from the sketch here given it will be seen, that our good grandmothers differed considerably in their ideas of a fine figure, from their scantily dressed descendants of the present day. a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. nor were they the less admired by the gentlemen in consequence thereof. on the contrary, the greatness of a lover's passion seemed to increase in proportion to the magnitude of its object—and a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. certain it is, that in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen - - the reason of which i conclude to be, either that the hearts of the gentlemen have grown larger, or the persons of the ladies smaller — this however is a question for physiologists to determine. add punctuation to the following excerpt. writing under the name of diedrich knickerbocker washington irving aimed his potent satire at as diverse topics as political rivals such as thomas jefferson to the very ideal of looking back on the past affectionately: a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen