Metaphor

Ok, question.  My co-worker's daughter had an assignment to find a song with a metaphor in it.  Here is the words from the song she chose:

Living in the shadows of someone else's dream
Trying to find a hand to hold but every touch feels cold to me
Living in the nightmare a never ending sleep
But now that I am wide awake my chains are finally free
Don't feel sorry for me

Is this a metaphor??  The teacher told her that this was a HORRIBLE metaphor and that she has no idea what a metaphor is.  I think it sounds like a metaphor...

Thanks, but what about my question?  Does the song that I wrote above directly compare between two things?  Is that song a good or bad metaphor?  I think it works and I think the teacher who said it's a horrible example of a metaphor is wrong.

The song lyrics in question contain multiple mixed metaphors or metaphoric language but no single consistent metaphor.  "shadows" is metaphoric for negative influences, I assume.  "nightmare" is metaphoric for terrible times, I assume.  "chains" seem to be a reference to some sort of inability to act -- not clear from the context.  At any rate, being free from the chains seems to be equated with being awake.  But "awake" itself is metaphoric for having an understanding or realization (of something -- although it's not clear what).  It's quite a hodge-podge of images, although I wouldn't tell a student it was a horrible example.  Surely there is a more diplomatic way of putting it.

Unfortunately, I don't know what to suggest as a better example of a metaphor in a song as I'm not familiar with a lot of songs.  Maybe another member of the Forum will assist.

CJ

Chains being free is not a metaphor.  That gives chains a human character trait so it sounds like personification.

I definitely agree with grammar geek.  It's talking about her chains.  The speaker is kind of the subject of the sentence so it is actually saying that she is finally free.  But is she really chained up? No.  So this is a metaphor.