Page 92 - Song Maps - A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics - Simon Hawkins

Verse 2
I'm so far from heaven's Throne
But you paint me with your golden glow
A little bit of halo goes a long, long way
I love the love, the light you bring
I hope you have no angel wings
Just promise me, you'll never fly away, 'cause
Chorus
Bridge
For every shade of beautiful I see
The more you bring the angel out in me
Chorus
Words and music by Simon Hawkins
Copyright © 2016 Great British Music (Adm. by Music Services) Lyrics Used By Permission, All Rights Reserved
Some points I'd make:
1. While the structure is Literal/Figurative, there is no reason to leave out effective figurative language in V1, especially if it signals the figurative theme that is about to come in the Chorus/V2.
2. The impact of the Bridge building on the metaphor already set up but also inserting a twist–helps to provide some cohesion for the lyric.
3. Note that to introduce a different metaphor in this lyric would feel awkward, having committed to the "angel" pictures previously. It's sensible, for the sake of clarity and unity of the lyric, to stick with one figurative picture in this Map.
Variations on Literal/Figurative
We've already talked about literal and figurative sections being swapped around (i.e. V1 figurative, V2 literal). It's possible to assign Literal/Figurative in other ways.
Another variation is as in Dierks Bentley's "I Hold On", which uses figurative in the Verses and literal in the Chorus.
Michael Bolton's "Love is a Wonderful Thing" has the first few lines of each Verse use literal language and the second half of each Verse use figurative language.
The main distinction between simply using figurative language as a tool and this Song Map is that the use of the figurative is structural rather than just applying it in an isolated or unsystematic way.
Commercial examples of Literal/Figurative
Wonderful examples of Literal/Figurative I'd highlight include: