What is an example of metaphor in the poem, The Writer?

The typewriter is an unseen auditory cue in the poem which the speaker uses to identify their daughter’s creative process. In the extended metaphor of the house as a ship, the typewriter is specifically the ship’s anchor: “a chain hauled over a gunwale” (Line 6). On a ship, an anchor has the power to both root one in place and to give one freedom of motion, depending on how it is used. In this context, the typewriter roots the daughter to her home while also giving her the freedom to create and grow.