The preceding discussion of simile distinguished a list of several attributes from one composite configuration made by their arrangement. This distinction is central to compound metaphor.
Moving ahead, withdrawing, and failing to commit combine into one intelligible image of hesitation. Merely describing a person as “tall, fast, and brave,” by contrast, supplies separate predicates; it does not automatically yield a representative metaphor.
Ask whether the features together establish one distinct scene, and whether that very scene has been redeployed for another situation.