Descriptionistic approaches to poetical tropes go back to Aristotle (Poetics XI, 1457b), who considered metaphor as a kind of analogy assuming that, in the metaphor, the words pointing out a comparison (“as if”, “looks like”, etc.) are omitted, although they are implied.

They tubed down the Colorado River.

The festival had balloons, flowers, fireworks, performers, and the whole shebang.

The motivational speaker started with a pratfall so he could speak about the importance of getting back up.