Similar silliness

On Saturday night, as we trundled through the mean streets of Forest Hill, Toller used a lovely metaphor:

"Knives on sticks for the eyes of the tall"

A pint of, yes you guessed it, lovely cider, for the first person to tell me what the Ginger King was metaphorising...

UPDATE: Dan wins. The answer was of course umbrellas, (rather than brollies as our common northern friend supposed. Tsk).

And here's the first umbrella poem that came up on Google.

The parasol is the umbrella's daughter,
And associates with a fan
While her father abuts the tempest
And abridges the rain.

The former assists a siren
In her serene display;
But her father is borne and honored,
And borrowed to this day.
By Emily Dickinson

I think rhyming 'fan' with 'rain' is possibly a criminal offence.