Metaphysical Poetry

I subscribe to an email publication called "Enterprise Ethics", and the writer, Carlton Vogt, said this within his most recent article "Symbol & Myth":

Symbols are generally taken to mean physical objects, which in and of themselves have no particular value or meaning, but which point to a greater reality, often invisible or intangible.

So, a strip of cloth hanging from a pole isn't much of anything until we invest it with the task of being a pointer to the national ethos. Then, it becomes a symbol. Two sticks of wood joined at right angles have no real meaning until we make them a symbol of a set of religious beliefs. Then, they point to a powerful reality. A few smears of paint on the side of a building are just vandalism, until we realize that the smears form a swastika and the building is a synagogue. Then, it is no longer simple vandalism, but a symbol of a potent hatred.

...

We have national myths that we tell each other to explain the origin of our country and how we see ourselves. Ask any school child and most adults and you'll be told that the Pilgrims came to America to find religious freedom. The myth says something about what we see as central to the national psyche, but it's not exactly true. The Pilgrims came here to set up a restrictive Puritanical theocracy, and they quite freely persecuted anyone who didn't belong. This is, in fact, a large part of the reason why the Founding Fathers introduced the wall of separation between church and state.

Most religions have myths, often in metaphysical poetry, that explain how the world came to be and our place within it. They talk about how we were "created," "condemned," "saved" or "enlightened" or whatever metaphor the mythology employs. What leads some believers astray is when they confuse the myth with reality and begin to think the metaphysical poetry is strict, journalistic fact.

In my religious tradition, we are not literalists, but I have never had a bible teacher specifically point to any reference in the bible as "metaphysical poetry". Most of us know that there is much metaphor in the bible, but now I am thinking about metaphor vs. metaphysical poetry.

And how does one decide what can be taken literally?