What do you mean by formalists?
By Oblique I think I meant Oblique, hehe, but in all seriousness I rarely give single literal meanings to my metaphors. I mean if I wanted to imply the moon I would have said moon, or some such thing which would immediately out the moon in the readers mind. The beauty of the simile or metaphor is that it expresses a certain "something" for which there are no words, or if there are words they are inconclusive and ineffectual, if there were a word which clearly defines the "something" already I think a metaphor or simile would be affected and only bring down the piece.