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Q&A How do you make a vague metaphor more easy to understand?

I am a fairly avid songwriter, and although I like writing meaningful lyrics, I am not particularly good at it. I tend to use a lot of metaphors in my lyrics, but they're always quite easy to unde...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Lee White‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question poetry metaphor
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:03:37Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/16268
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Lee White‭ · 2019-12-08T04:03:37Z (almost 5 years ago)
I am a fairly avid songwriter, and although I like writing meaningful lyrics, I am not particularly good at it.

I tend to use a lot of metaphors in my lyrics, but they're always quite easy to understand -- my lyrics aren't the "figure out a meaning for yourself" kind.

Currently I am writing about somebody who refuses to speak, and I'm using the following line for that:

> I see your lips, and they are golden.

Trying to stay as concise as possible, I'm using "golden" as a reference to the "silence is golden" proverb.

What I am worried about right now is whether people will catch on to this when reading/hearing this particular line. Are there any techniques to "guide" people into the direction of what I am trying to say, without literally explaining the metaphor? Or am I simply overthinking it, and should I assume that people will understand it this way?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-02-19T08:35:19Z (almost 10 years ago)
Original score: 1