Maybe you're gonna be the one who saves me

[venta]

In between courageous attempts[*] to get the whole tube carriage to join in singing Wonderwall late on Saturday night, a somewhat inebriated bloke drew Cathy and I into a conversation. We were required to solve an argument that he and his mate had apparently been having all day. As it turned out, we agreed with his take on things - but his mate steadfastly refused to be convinced.

So, since this it the only true way to settle an argument:

[Poll #1026597]

Please show your working in the comments.

[*] More successful than you might think. He found one other equally enthusiastic person and they got through at least two verses before they ran out of words. At one point, stopped at a station, they even got a benchful of people on the platform to join in.

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I have a question: why is this remotely controversial?

Or does that just mean I have the wrong answer? ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I thought it wasn't controversial. However, my knowledge is limited to one pre-GCSE English lesson, which went:

"My love is a red, red rose" is a metaphor, cos it doesn't say 'like'.
"My love is like a red, red rose" is a simile, cos it does.

The (soberer) bloke who insisted "eat like a pig" was a metaphor sounded so convincing that I began to wonder if it was actually more complicated than "is the word 'like' involved".

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I think it is (slightly) more complex. Because I'd say something is still a simile if it draws a comparison. The word "like" is just by far the easiest way to do that.

As a result, it is possible to construct slightly controversial borderline cases, such as "he and the ducks waddled along the path together". So the bloke being talked about either has a duck's walk (metaphor) or walks like a duck (simile) or possibly we shouldn't apply either term here. I don't know.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Hm. Is that a dead metaphor with an implicit simile?