Idioms and Metaphors

Riptide, by the Australian singer and songwriter Vance Joy.

This song is full of literary devices, such as idioms, metaphors and allusions. Try to explain with your own words the meaning of the expressions in bold. First of all, watch the music video because it depicts the lyrics of the song almost word for word and it can be helpful. If you are not able to guess the meaning, try to find it using monolingual dictionaries.

I was scared of dentists and the dark

I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations

Oh, all my friends are turning green

You're the magician's assistant in their dream

Oh, oh, and they come unstuck

Lady, running down to the riptide

Taken away to the dark side

I wanna be your left-hand man

I love you when you're singing that song and

I got a lump in my throat 'cause

You're gonna sing the words wrong

There's this movie that I think you'll like

This guy decides to quit his job and heads to New York City

This cowboy's running from himself

And she's been living on the highest shelf

(...)

If you want to check your findings, the answer key to this activity is available on the right column of this blog.