How should we use figures of speech in Wordsworth's and Shelley's poems to understand the poems?

The object of figures of
speech is to express an idea or experience in a metaphorical,
symbolic or other non-literal (figurative) way for the purpose of making the
underlying idea or experience more understandable. This may seem contradictory
considering how hard it sometimes is to identify figures of speech (also called
figurative language) but figures of speech affect our understanding
when we read them even when we can't identify or label them.

Let's
take an example from Wordsworth's The Ruined Cottage. When you read
the following, what sense of meaning do you get from the
words?

...
four naked walls
That stared upon each
other

Most readers who see
this think immediately of a room or hut that is completely bare and abandoned. This is
exactly correct for this is Wordsworth's first description of the ruined cottage
(Wordsworth got his syntax a bit confused here since his description is of the
exterior of the cottage and "stared upon each other" usually
conjures up the idea interior
walls).

I
found a ruined house, four naked walls
That stared upon each
other

Readers understand this
even without being able to identify this as a figure of
speech, called personification, that treats
inanimate objects (walls) as if they had human emotions, actions and thoughts. So, in
one sense, "how" we use figures of speech to understand poems is simply to react to
them, as you and others react to the lines above.

In
another sense, we use figures of speech to
analyze the deeper meanings the poet is attempting to
convey. In this case, by recognizing that this quote is personification of the
"house," we can analyze the cottage as symbolizing its
past owner's life and love. The poem will bear this analysis out as the story of its
inhabitants is told from their prosperity to their ruin--and the symbolic cottage's
ruin.

Let's apply this to a quick example from Shelly's
"When the Lamp Is Shattered." Stanza III tells us his topic is passionate love (though
love is a double symbol for (1) the beloved one and for (2) the
passion): "Love first leaves the well-built nest." Stanza IV
starts:

Its
[love's] passions will rock thee
As the storms rock the ravens on
high;

These two lines have
three figures of speech: personification, metaphor,
analogy. If you don't know about figures of speech, you still sense the meaning that
love will bitterly break your heart. Analysis of the
figures confirms this by showing that love is given the human trait of violent emotion
that will shake you as if in violent anger and that it will be compared to how a storm
shakes the trees ravens are perching in for protection. We see from analyzing these
figures of speech that there will be no protection from the violence of love's
passions.

So the way we use figures of
speech to understand poetry is by analyzing
the figures' deeper, non-literal meanings to deduce the
poet's underlying meanings and
themes.