In talking to a companion, you would be more likely to speak of "the red sun" and "the hot sky," than to use such language as Coleridge's:

All in a hot and copper sky The bloody sun at noon Right up above the mast did stand No bigger than the moon.

Again, we oftener say, "The sun was shining bright upon the mountain tops," than "The early sunshine was already pouring its gold upon the mountain tops." Yet Hawthorne's expression is beautiful.

Now what have these words done? Hot is literal; we all understand it. Copper tells us what the sky looked like. Everybody has seen the sun look red, but it is striking to call it as red as blood. Again, we generally think of the sun as yellow, but to say it is so much gold is to remind us sharply of the metal it resembles. These writers have not used copper, blood, and gold to say precisely what they meant, but to suggest resemblances. Words used for what they suggest, in a sense not exactly literal, we call figurative.