Polarisation in Wigton

I was talking to my class about the picket fence model for polarisation. Transverse waves are ordinary wavey-looking waves like the waves on the sea. Waves that vibrate in the vertical plane would be able to slip through the gaps between the fence posts. Waves vibrating in the horizontal plane would not. It's a good model but more complicated than that in real life. If the electric field of an electromagnetic wave lines up with the poles, which could be metal or organic molecules, it makes electrons in the poles oscillate so using up energy and thus stopping the vertical electric field electromagnetic waves. Ones with horizontal electric fields can only make electrons vibrate a tiny lateral distance in the poles, thus horizontal waves can get through. This is opposite to the picket fence analogy!