Explain how this figurative language contributes to the tone, mood, and overall meaning of the poem. Passage Fame is a fickle food1 Upon a shifting plate Whose table once a Guest but not The second time is set. Whose crumbs the crows inspect And with ironic caw Flap past it to the Farmer's Corn — Men eat of it and die.2 —Emily Dickinson, "1659" 1. Fickle means erratic or constantly changing