Not So Royal

It's not very difficult in today's world to find examples of satire. We live in a society where people constantly critique others as they try to defend why there way is the best. There are lots of great opinions and messages sent out through satires, and I found one of my favorites in the song "Royals" by Lorde.

Lorde makes it very clear that she isn't making music for the money and fame. In fact, she's actually criticizing the common lifestyle of those with loads of money and fame. Using mockery and hyperboles, she is able to speak her opinion that life isn't about materialistic things or status. In the hook, Lorde sings,

Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash

We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair.

As she mocks tremendously rich people, she uses the hyperbole of "tigers on a gold leash." This is an extreme exaggeration of what rich people are like. It's very unrealistic, making it a quiet diss towards the wealthy and famous. Although I'm sure Lorde loves messing with the one percent and fellow celebrities, there are deeper meanings behind the lyrics of her song. By dismissing the actions and lifestyle of the obnoxious rich people, Lorde is also dismissing the popular conception that money and fame equates to happiness. After listing off a list of hyperboles referring to the rich, she sings,

That kind of lux just ain't for us

We crave a different kind of buzz.

This statement alone strengthens the message that happiness can be found elsewhere. The "buzz," referring to happiness, can be found in other areas than money and fame. Although Lorde's "Royals" can be claimed as ironic, due to her recent success and fame, it still spreads a great message to our society. She uses her experiences as a famous, rich celebrity, as well as her platform, to dismiss the idea that people need money and a high reputation to be happy. Hopefully, this message can continue to be spread, and more celebrities can reveal the realities of being famous.

"All 3.6 Billion Men Are Like This!"

In the television show "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," the main characters often use silly comedic songs to touch on difficult subjects such as mental health, sexism, and societal standards. I chose the satire: "Let's Generalize about Men," which is a man-hating song that reflects on why men are hated and mocks how women talk about them.

The characters in the song are all women who have recently had trouble with their relationships with men. They're all caught up in the terrible things their boyfriends have done, and talk about how every single man is an emotionally stunted child. The song encourages the stereotype of single women who drink and complain about men, but also the stereotype that men argue how not all men are like this.

The women say, "All men are completely repressed/...There are no exceptions/ All 3.6 billion men are like this." This satire uses hyperbole to acknowledge that in reality, not all men are like this. It's impossible that 3.6 billion men are childish and never listen, but the women use this generalization to explain why all of their relationships have gone poorly.

They also say, "And why do men never listen and only think about themselves?/ As opposed to women who always listen and never think about themselves?" This question brings up the fact that not all women have these characteristics, either. It examines the stereotypes in general, and how you can't accurately depict what a group of billions of people are really like. Especially if the stereotype for them includes multiple requirements of their character.

The women then bring up the question, "Hey what about gay men?/ Gay men are all really great/ Every single one.../ They're all completely adorable and fun!" This continues to mock the stereotype about how straight women talk about men, and plays into the stereotypes of gay men. The women truly feel depressed and hurt about the straight men they have dated, and come to the conclusion that every single gay man must be "adorable and fun!" This represents another hyperbole, which brings up the notion that all gay men must have this kind of character, and doesn't bring up the fact that these are just stereotypes, and don't accurately depict the true character every single man on the planet.

I think that this satire is not just mocking women for generalizing about men, but also critiquing sexist stereotypes and how they unknowingly permeate into our society. These women, in particular, use these stereotypes to make themselves feel better about their past relationships. But, they don't acknowledge the fact that these stereotypes are extremely harmful. This satirical song is trying to make their audience see that we should stop generalizing about any group of people, specifically men, gay men, and women. We shouldn't jump to the conclusion that all straight men/gay men/women are like this if we have only had a few encounters with a person that fits this stereotype.

Katy Perry is not Your Therapist

Contrary to its name, Bo Burnham’s Kill Yourself (warning: explicit) neither glorifies nor espouses suicide. Instead, the song uses its provocative title to satirize today’s pop songs and comment on the relationship between pop artists and their audiences. Along the way, it also touches on the topics of depression and mental illness.

Kill Yourself works on multiple satirical levels. The form of the song is a parody—a parody of pop music—although that is not the area from which the satire derives its most poignant commentary. However, Burnham’s choice in using a pop song format to deliver his script enhances the comedic value while simultaneously connecting the message with the medium being critiqued. His use of parody ties the whole comedic sketch together, allowing the meaning to shine through.

The main satirical technique in Kill Yourself is a kind of hyperbole. Burnham uses the brutally straightforward action of suicide as an exaggerated example of a simple solution to a complex problem. By establishing a parallel between suicide and the advice given by pop icons, he argues that pop song morals, like suicide, are an oversimplified and ultimately unhelpful response to the complicated struggles of life. In the same way that killing oneself is a non-solution, the uplifting words of a pop artist can not resolve the listener’s problems in any meaningful way.

The true genius of Burnham’s song is the way it leverages its use of hyperbole to address both sides of the analogy. By comparing the pop industry’s ineffective emotional support to suicide AND THEN continuing to show how lack of proper mental health care can lead to suicide, Burnham connects all the concepts of his satire into one interconnected message. Like figurative suicide, seeking support from pop songs will not improve one’s mental health, and may in fact contribute to literal suicide.

Music Poetry!

Chum

Earl Sweatshirt truly is the Shakespeare of our generation and we see this through his song “Chum” in the Doris album. The song is pretty deep but he seems to be talking about his family life and how it has turned him into the person he is today.

Something sinister to it, pendulum swinging slow
A degenerate moving through the city with criminals

He is using quite ingenious wordplay in the above lines. In physics, a pendulums motion is said to be “degenerate” as friction increasingly slows it down. However, the word “degenerate” can also mean an immoral or corrupt person. Earl is describing the pendulums motion as similar to himself, as well as saying he was a moral person who is becoming more corrupted with time

When he says

Get up off the pavement, brush the dirt up off my psyche
Psyche, psyche

This indicates that his troubles are more complex now, involving his psyche rather than just lewd under-age drinking. The line “pendulum swinging slower, degenerate moving” in connection with the slowed down vocals in the words psyche, might mean that Earl’s degeneracy is slowing down with his age as he brushes the dirt off of his dirty psyche. He’s still inclined as a young adult to do stupid things, but he’s starting to slow down.

Cartoons and Cereal

Throughout Hip-Hop history, Poetry has always been intertwined with experiences and lyrical metaphors to help express and convey an emotion, thus expanding and bring together communities between people through, childhood experiences, love, and mental health. Kendrick Lamar is considerably a more recent hip-hop icon that conveys his poetry with his experiences of drugs, love, hate, loneliness and his childhood home. In his song "Cartoons and Cereal" released in 2012, he emphasizes the parallels of addiction and youth. He focused on the power of idolizing cartoons and being youthful with the power of addiction, when growing up you are exposed to new things. These "adult things" that he was exposed to while growing up; he wasn't shielded by them by parental figures.

[Intro]

I wanna hit line drives…
Wanna lose weight and keep eating...
For you...
Hey, whats up doc

As the song continues, we learn Kendrick grew up around his best friends, his A1 that he went way back with- especially to the reference to sandboxes having a double meaning because its literal and figurative because sandboxes are a symbol of youth and innocent “the Good ‘ol days”, back when life was good and all about fun. And, he continues to say because of their background, being youth his 'brother' was holding a handgun due to gang affiliations and his 'sister' giving birth, due to the systematic oppression of young Black women because used and having their innocence taken away due to lack of information on abstinence and education, it shows the poverty of their neighborhood and their "Worlds"

[Bridge]

Now I was raised in a sandbox, next to you and her
You was holding the handgun, she was giving birth
To a baby boy to be just like you, I-I wonder what's that worth

The ideology of Black boys not having no worth in our society, as just being gang affiliated and targets for police brutality- to be a black Boy to Kendrick means their life doesn’t hold much value because they barely make it to adulthood anyway. So,what’s the real value to Black lives?

I-I wonder if you ever knew that you was a role model to me first
The next day I-I woke up in the morning, seen you on the news
Looked in the mirror, then realized that I-I-I had something to prove

This is shown that, Black boys,look up to Black men peep how they were taught to continuous feed into the cycle of seeing themselves on TV in a negative light, Kendrick says to he will be different by proving that he is different, all of this while growing up while exposed to these factors that will shape his perspectives on his value of his life and others around him

You told me "Don't be like me, just finish watching cartoons"
Which is funny now cause all I see is Wile E. Coyote's in the room

The coyotes symbolize the future obstacles of gangs, and vivid imagination as being a child seeing ‘villains’ try to conquer and win against the innocent and heroes, Kendrick tries to be the hero and still remain good and focused on trying to grow up while being prematurely exposed explicitly by teen pregnancy and gang violence and being targeted because he is a Black male in Compton. I'd argue his song is poetry because it lays a foundation of a experiences that Kendrick feels and convey to make people feel some way about his story through things all humans go through; coming of age.

What Do They Call Me?

"Four Women" is written and recorded by the artist Nina Simone from her album Wild Is the Wind. The song was recorded in 1965 and released in 1966. This song is about the depictions of four women with different skin tones and stereotypes. The women depicted in this song are based off of real women. The song also dates back to the slave era where these stereotypes originated. The speakers in this song are four different African American females. The audience are African American women who relate to the descriptions and stereotypes in this song. T

he main use of imagery really brings out the poetic side of the song by creating a stereotypical picture of each women. The use of imagery and first person throughout the whole song also communicates experience for those who actually live with these descriptions and stereotypes. The lyrics of the song would be divided into four stanzas, one for each woman depicted. The first line in each stanza starts out with a woman stating, "My skin is..." to kick off the description of that woman. The women would go on to describe themselves including, "My hair is long", "My manner is tough", and "My hips invite you" Each stanza is directed to a specific type of woman, creates a specific image for them, and conveys a specific experience that they can possibly relate to which will pull in the African American female audience. They will feel like the song is written about them because, poetically, it is written about them. The song written and sang in first person adds on to the personal feel of the it.

Even if some African American females have not experienced these stereotypes, they can feel the experience of those who have because the first person supports the song being for all African American women. The stanzas end with the question, "What do they call me", "they", meaning those who create and believe in the stereotypes, followed by the names, "Aunt Sarah", "Saffronia", "Sweet Thing", and "Peaches". The names in the song add an emotional dimension to the song by providing an unwanted symbol from those who branded them with it to the women who "fit the description". There is a personal connection with those names and the description behind them to the women who represent them making the audience feel emotionally attached to the song. A song with the capability to be directed to people with the use imagery and first person, communicating experiences, and creating an emotional dimension should be considered a fantastic poem.

She Reminds Me of a West Side Story

Song: "Maria Maria"
Artist: Carlos Santana
Album: Supernatural

My all time favorite song is one called "Maria Maria" off of Carlos Santana's album Supernatural. It tells the story of a girl named Maria, and her attempt to escape the life she's living. To me, this song embodies poetry in the best sense of the word.

I said a la favella los colores,
the streets are getting hotter.
There is no water to put out the fire.
Ni gota de esperanza.

When the parts in Spanish are translated, the stanza states that "If rain were a metaphor for hope, not a drop of it could be found." This line adds to the situation that Maria is in, and how badly she wants to try and escape it. The singer also claims that Maria reminds them of a "West Side story." The beauty in this metaphor is that, while a person obviously can't be a story, they are able to be compared to something all listeners can picture.

I have been reading and writing poetry almost every day after school for the past few weeks, and something I have realized is that poetry can be many things. It's main purpose is to find a way to rearrange words, so that one person's experience becomes a metaphor for another person's life. A song like "Maria Maria" isn't one that everyone may relate to personally, we may not all know a Maria, but we are still able to picture her along with her pain, and her story. Not to mention, Carlos Santana is pretty legendary himself.

Consequences

Camila Cabello's song "Consequences" from the album Camila is truly a piece of poetry. The album Camila was released soon after her departure of Fifth Harmony. The entire album Camila seemed to encapsulate her liberation from her old band and ability to fully indulge in her own style of music and culture. The song "Consequences" is one of her more personal pieces that could've never been released if she were to stay in Fifth Harmony.

Every word is beautifully sang with a sorrowful and painful tone, conveying a story, possibly one of her own experiences, of a toxic relationship. The lyrics strongly suggest she's talking about herself by her usage of possessive pronouns and first person pronouns such as mine, I'm, I, and me. Through her choice of first person pronouns, it not only makes the entire song more personal to the listener and relatable, but also reminds the audience of her own humanity. Often times fans forget celebrities are humans too and face their own heart breaks and toxic relationships like any other human. Through her figure of speech and tone combined, we not only hear her pain and despair, but become aware of who she's directing it to.

For parts of the song, she is directing the emotion and focus towards her ex, however during the section,

    "Hesitation, awkward conversation
      Running on low expectation
      Every siren that I was ignoring
      I'm paying for it"

she herself is the focus. This isn't the only time she is the focus, however it is to me the most powerful in the sense it's extremely relatable to the audience. "Consequence" is truly a piece of poetry, because throughout the entire song, you're there with her during the happy moments of the relationship, the toxic moments, and the reflection after.

How You Gonna Win If You Ain't Right Within?

Lauryn Hill's song "Doo-Wop (That Thing)", from her solo debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, should be considered poetry. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was a triumph in the development of the hip-hop genre, and still remains to be one today.

The primary theme within this song is how men and women tend to exploit each other materialistically, and how the obsession of materialism can corrupt a person. The song begins with a message towards women who are caught up in material values:

          Talking out your neck, sayin' you're a Christian
          A Muslim, sleeping with the jinn
          Now that was the sin that did Jezebel in
          Who you gon' tell when the repercussions spin?

Lauryn Hill's incorporation of the concept of religious values into this song was a smart choice. While the particular woman in this verse is saying that she has religious and righteous values, she ends up falling short as true religious values directly contrast her materialistic ones. Additionally, the wordplay utilized with jinn is very effective in enhancing the overall meaning of the song due to the meaning of jinn having ambiguity. In Islam, a jinn is an intelligent spirit with a lower status than an angel, so due to the context of Islam in the verse, "sleeping with the jinn" would go against religious values. Simultaneously, sleeping with the gin, or rather, drinking gin, also violates Islamic values since drinking alcohol as a Muslim is not permissible, or halal. The pun Lauryn Hill uses here is simple yet incredibly effective, and gives the verse much more of an impact that it would have had otherwise.

In the second part of the song, Lauryn Hill shifts her lyrical focus towards the values of men:

          The pretty face men claiming that they did a bid men
          Need to take care of they three or four kids
          And they face a court case when the child support late
          Money taking and heart breaking, now you wonder why women hate men

The use of internal rhyme throughout the lyrics worked here. These lyrics show how material obsession, particularly money, make men prioritize gaining that over all else, including family. When looking at these examples, such as the child support verse, the internal rhyme between "court case" and "support late" contribute to the overall flow of the song. Interestingly, Lauryn Hill's shift to internal rhyme in her lyrics primarily comes when she changes the focus of her song from women to men. Her intent here may have been to emphasize the qualities that men possess when caught up with material possessions.

Ultimately, this song resonates deeply with the flaws of human nature, and emphasizes the mistakes that we as a society often make.

Take Me Home, Music Poetry

It’s hard to say poetry is just one “thing”. To boil such a complex art form into one unit would
be impossible. It is not, however, impossible to say one thing is poetry. Take, for example, John
Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Each word carries weight. The song has multiple
meanings. It is truly poetry. The speaker is an adult, who, after a long hiatus, hears the call of
West Virginia, their home. The occasion is not clearly established, but one can infer that the piece occurs during a moment’s nostalgia, as established by the reminiscent, romantic language. The piece seeks to convey the irresistible pull of being, for a moment, caught by the echoes of home. It helps one understand what it’s like to be far from where you grew up and remember the familiarity of
where you once were. The nostalgic tone is set immediately:

Almost heaven, West Virginia
West Virginia is established as a utopia within the narrator’s memories. As they put it,

All my memories, gather round her
The pull of West Virginia is literally occuring on the surface. The text tells the story of a West Virginian away from home. The double meaning, however, exists as a commentary of the nature of “home” itself. West Virginia is not simply a place, it’s an idea. The West Virginia described is not a literal West Virginia. The piece does not occur within West Virginia. As the narrator describes it, “West Virginia” is a manifestation of safety and familiarity.

I hear her voice in the morning hour she calls me
Radio reminds me of my home far away
Driving down the road I get a feeling
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

Her(West Virginia) calls to the narrator. The starry sky and misty moonshine are memories. The “calls”, are nostalgia. At its core, “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” is a song about home. Its words carry multiple meaning, as a poem’s should. It conveys the need for home in addition to an engaging story about someone far from West Virginia. A year from now, most of my peers and I will be far from home. We will yearn for the warmth of youth. Oak Park will become our West Virginia. And I’m definitely gonna crank this.

"High as Hope": Album or Anthology?

Florence + the Machine's most recent album "High as Hope" is the first album she has created since she took to sobriety. In an interview with The New York Times, she said her new album "created a creative bravery" and in an act of vulnerability, she "made a step away from the metaphoric."

According to Laurence Perrine, author of Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry, a true poet uses language resources and "the materials of life" to create a poem. Throughout Florence Welch's 2018 release, she draws on past experiences to inspire her lyrics. Most notably in her song "The End of Love"

The first experience she reflects on is the telling of a potentially spurious story about her family's history:

We were a family pulled from the flood
You tore the floorboards up
And let the river rush in
Not wash away, wash away

In an interview with Belfast Telegraph, she recalls how her great-great-grandfather, a sailor, saved her family from a flood by pulling up the floorboards in the house so the water would rush through and wouldn't wash the house away. When writing the chorus, she considered the symbolic value of extreme weather and decided the story symbolizes the impact the past has on the future and the weight of cleaning up the past's destruction.

She goes on to write about her grandmother's suicide in the song's second verse:

In a moment of joy and fury I threw myself
From the balcony like my grandmother so many years before me

These lines bank directly on "the materials of life" and employ simile as a language resource. She compares her present condition to that of her grandmother when she fell. Furthermore, Welch illuminates a pattern in the way the women in her family love, each having learned from her mother, a "trickle-down" that is comparable to the succession of the feeling of tragedy following her grandmother's death.

We then see allusion and connotation at play in the song's bridge:

And Joshua came down from the mountain
With a tablet in his hands
Told me that he loved me, yeah
And then ghosted me again

This stanza alludes to a passage in the Old Testament in which Moses receives the Ten Commandments. Then, Welch plays with the 21st-century connotation of the term "ghosted" referring to when a person's love-interest suddenly ceases communication without explanation. With this idea introduced, the tablet she references may have a more modern implication as an electronic device.

Despite making reference to specific events and stories, Florence Welch's song is still accessible to her audience. She creates a foundation that is personally significant but also encourages the listener to contribute their own experiences to the text, thus through the application of their imagination, senses, and emotions the song "enlighten[s] and move[s]" the listener.

You Are Appreciated

The song that I chose is called Dear Mama, by Tupac Shakur. It's a song from his album, Me Against the World. This is actually one of the most special, touching, heartfelt songs I've ever came across in life. This song is about the indescribable love that he has for his mother. And even though they had their struggles, she was the one who made sure his needs were met. Tupac Shakur really sets the mood with the way he describes certain events. 

In the first verse, for example, 

I shed tears with my baby sister, over the years
We was poorer than the other little kids

Those lines really make me feel the sadness and the struggle that I'm sure they went through together. 

I would also say that Shakur uses imagery. He gave me the ability to form that mental picture in my head of things that he's obviously experienced in the past. 

In the first verse, he says 

I reminisce on the stress I caused, it was hell
Huggin' on my mama from a jail cell

That can surely make you picture him and his mother, together in the jail facility. 

Then in the second verse, he goes on to say

I moved out and started really hangin'
I needed money of my own, so I started slangin'
I aint guilty, 'cause even though I sell rocks
It feels good to put money in your mailbox
I love payin' rent when the rent is due
I hope you got the diamond necklace that I sent to you

The different devices that he uses are really just amazing, and this song is a perfect example of pure poetry. 

Dear Mama




  

Omar Sharif

Katrina Lenk's performance of "Omar Sharif" in the musical The Band's Visit  is technically stunning, and the somber tone of the music invokes feelings of nostalgia in the listener. The song occurs at a point in the musical when she is remembering childhood memories of listening to Egyptian music in her isolated desert hometown. The song is about how people can connect to things outside of their ordinary daily lives, and how they can use this wide thinking to expand their personal experiences.

There are two main tonal shifts within the song which emphasize the point. Towards the beginning, Dina (Lenk's character), uses vague language to describe how she experienced cultures that differed from her own (Egyptian movies and music) through chance, saying they "floated in on a jasmine wind". The first shift occurs with the phrase "Friday evening, Omar Sharif", as Lenk's voice gets louder and she gets more confident, she begins to describe the wonder that she and her mother held towards these pieces of foreign art. The song uses phrases that aren't exactly descriptive but imply that she needed this escape from tragedy to stay sane in her day to day, like when she watches the TV "in black and white and blurry through tears". Lenk then returns to the softer tone when she repeats the vague lyrics from the beginning of the song, which illustrates the comfort that these movies and music give her, she is soft about them.

The second tonal shift happens with the line "And the TV set becomes a garden", as Lenk grows in volume again and uses descriptions like this first line to show that these pieces of art have literally made their way into her life, and that she is better for it. The word choices here of nature imagery express beauty, a marked change from the tragedy implied earlier in the song, showing that her new experiences are providing her with comfort and making her life better. This is further shown as she goes back to the phrases that reference "jasmine wind" and share the same tone, and creates the feeling of comfort that comes with repetition.

M&M Poet Turned Wrapper

"Cleanin' Out My Closet" by Eminem was released on May 26th, 2002 in Marshall's album, The Eminem Show. This album is highly respected as one of Eminem's best with classics in "Till I Collapse" and "Without Me." Eminem's beautiful artistry and manipulation of words adds incredible new levels to "Cleanin' Out My Closet." This song tells the story of a young Marshall Mathers and his distaste for his own mother and the press. The song starts off with Em's troubles with the press and the people, stemming from his controversial rhymes and white demographic. He continues on to call out his mother for being a terrible mother even after Em's dad left both of them. Eminem tells a story with his music, every single lyric he produces is thought about long and hard until completely perfected.

     Now, I would never diss my own mama just to get recognition
     Take a second to listen 'fore you think this record is dissin'
     But put yourself in my position, just try to envision
     Witnessin' your mama poppin' prescription pills in the kitchen
     Bitchin' that someone's always goin' through her purse and shit's missin'
     Goin' through public housing systems, victim of Münchausen's Syndrome
     My whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn't
     'Til I grew up, now I blew up, it makes you sick to your stomach, doesn't it?

Eminem's use of internal rhymes is especially apparent in these first eight bars of his third verse. (Ln 2), listen & dissin', (Ln 3), position & envision, (Ln 4), witnessin' & prescription & kitchen. Almost every single line in the first eight bars of this verse contains an internal rhyme or more. He also goes on to mention Münchausen's Syndrome which is a mental disorder where a caregiver, usually a mother, harms their child or describes non-existent symptoms of a sickness in order to get sympathy and attention. He uses Münchausen's Syndrome as an extended metaphor for the rest of this snippet, mentioning being made "to believe he was sick when he wasn't" and "it makes you sick to your stomach." In addition to extended metaphors and internal rhymes, in these eight bars alone Em also uses multiple slant rhymes in the form of recognition & dissin, envision & kitchen, and housing systems & Münchausen's Syndrome. Although this is only eight lines from a five minute song, these lines alone show Eminem's poetic prowess. The song as a whole is one of the best made in this century, giving a complete and entertaining story of Eminem's life. The way Em's rhymes work, along with his overall flow and poetic strategies implemented throughout the song, prove that Eminem is not only a wrapper, but a poet.

Imagine There's No Poetry

The song "Imagine", by John Lennon is one of the most beautiful, awe inspiring, and the most successful single of his career. Released in the middle of the Vietnam War in 1971, he was just as much a visionary as a songwriter. The song itself is short and simple, but the simplicity is what allows each word to carry so much weight. Lennon asks his listeners to just imagine; to imagine a place where we live in peace and unity.

According to Perrine, poetry should broaden or deepen the reader's experiences. He also states that poetry should allow the reader to gain a better understanding or new perspective on the world. "Imagine" broadens the reader's understanding of the world by asking them to imagine a reality that many could not fathom.

Lennon starts the song with the first line:

        Imagine there's no heaven
        It's easy if you try

He mentions religion multiple times in the song. His belief was that people claiming that "my God is better than your God" was the cause for a lot of unrest and violence in the world. Many people live their lives in order to get into heaven or to avoid hell. But what if there was no other place after death, and we had to pay our debts in this life. People would have to focus on the present. How would that change individuals behaviors towards others?

In the start of the second verse he sings: 

        Imagine there's no countries
        It isn't hard to do

Countries, boundaries, and claims for land have caused multiple wars in present day and throughout the history of the earth. What if there was only one big country for everyone? There would be no "developed" or "undeveloped" countries. There would also be more camaraderie, as people would not be divided into sections.

The final line states: 

        Imagine no possessions
        I wonder if you can

Many people can imagine no heaven or no countries, but having no possessions is scary for many people. To be able to give up material goods, things we are accustomed to and many things we love, is not an easy feat. But if we were able to, would it make the world a more equal place?

Some could argue that Lennon's words are more relevant today than they were 30 years ago. Will we ever be able to achieve the goal of world peace? Right now, I'm not sure any of us can really imagine it.

Life Is Good, This Is A Good Life

It is time to go on a living spree. Perhaps you've heard the cliche "life's too short." While this phrase's overuse is mostly contributed to the dynamic of material culture in our society today, some individuals seem to embrace this notion. One individual, cultural icon Kanye West, has made this his life's motto. In his song "Good Life," which was the third single on his third album, 2007's Graduation, Kanye tries to get his audience to see that life really is good. Kanye stresses that we tend to fixate on what is wrong in our lives when we really should be embracing the good. We tend to think that life really isn't that good because we are afraid to live. We are afraid to be present. We are afraid to become our full potential.

"Good Life" is a hip-hop/electro-hop song. Its uplifting tone and strong, charismatic beat help to develop the overall theme that life is good. However, according to Kanye, there are some specific things in life that make it good.

                Welcome to the good life!
                Where we got girls who ain't on ain't on TV
                'Cause they got mo' ass than the models
                The good life, so keep it comin' with the bottles

Kanye's use of repetition of diction and punctuated use of a rhyme scheme helps articulate that perhaps, in Kanye's world, the good life consists of attractive women and alcohol.

               Have you ever popped champagne on a plane, while gettin' some brain
               Whipped it out, she said "I never seen snakes on a plane"
               Whether you broke or rich you gotta have this
               Havin' money's not everything, not havin' is

In Kanye's ideal "Good Life," he envisions himself on a plane, with some champagne, receiving oral sex. Kanye proposes that in this lifestyle money won't make you happy, but it will afford you the outrageous opportunities that those who don't have money will never have. Kanye's use of a starting consonant pattern and variation in possession of one word helps to accentuate the outrageousness of his fantasy lifestyle.

               The good life, let's go on a living spree
               Shit, they say the best things in life are free.

Kanye flips the idea of a 'killing' spree into a 'living' spree - carefree enjoyment of what actually inspires happiness. The 'good life' has its origins in the writings of Aristotle. Aristotle contemplated the 'good life' as a result of 'virtuous living,' but somewhere along the way the phrase was appropriated to mean 'living in luxury.' Kanye takes the term back to its roots.

The best things in life are free. However, life is free. So wouldn't that equate life being the best? We are never cognizant to the fact that life is free. Kanye wants you to start living. Will you?

Roses Don't Pick Themselves

Drakes song, "Sandra's Rose" is one song containing many messages and undertones all compact into two verses that strike the reader with every word. Drake starts his first theme of being "chosen" and succeeding throughout his hardships.

"My uncle tryna change my energy with stones and crystals
But it's gon' take more than that for me to control my issues
I wasn't made for no casket or no prison cell
Every title doin' numbers like I'm Miss Adele
Sandra knows I pulled us out of a living hell
I'm the chosen one, flowers never pick themselves"

This quotation in his first verse of the song provides us a snippet of Drake's underlying theme of success through hard times. This is evidenced when he says "My uncle tryna change my engery with stones and crystals But its gon' take more than that for me to control my issues" the deeper translation of this could be interpreted that his uncle was trying to cheer him up out of his sadness or depression by buying him jewlery, but he said its going ot take a lot more than materialistic items to make him happy again. In my opinion this is where Drake starts to tell the story inside his song. Following his confession of be in a darkened state of mind Drake continues by uplifting himself saying "I wasn't made for no casket or no prison cell every title doin' numbers like I'm Miss Adell" throwing in a simile, Drake now tells us that he belives in himself and that he wont fall victim to an early death or a prison sentence and instead he will suceed and make hits like the artist, Adell who is known for her award winning music. Lastly in this quotation Drake tell us that his mother, Sandra (who the song is named after) is proud of him for his success "Sandra knows I pulled us out of a living hell" and that he was made for this life as he was "the chosen one". Drake then ties it back to the title of his song by comparing him self metaphorically to a flower saying "I'm the chosen one, flowers don't pick themselves". This last Line of the quotation brings us into the other undertone of the song which is religion/religious remarks. Some may have more knowledge on Drake than others, and for those who don't know religious remarks are very common in his songs.

As we saw the progression of Drake's moral being uplifted throughout that first quotation his happiness and confidence is on the uprise as he describes himself walking "In godly form amongst the mortal men" Looking at this, one can see that Drake now hold himself as someone of a higher power than a normal mortal man through his success that has made him this "godly" figure in use of personification. This is where another Volta occurs and Drake turns to a more religious undertone. later in his second verse Drake recites the lines,

"Church of Pentecost, Holy Spirit synagogue I don't know who's protectin' me but we hit it off "

As decribed before, Drake has now switched his theme to more religiously oriented. Drake says that someone is "protectin'" him and that they "we" are getting along in, another way of saying his success is only growing in stride with his uplifted moral.

Drake's use of personification, similies, imagery and metaphors allows for a deeper meaning and visual aid to support his lyrics. Drake has always been known for his genius in communicating messages through his songs and it is clear that with the use of these poetic devices his music has more layers as it is broken down. This is why Drake has been, and always will be one of my all time favorite artists and will continue to dominate the game.

"Surprise Me"

"Surprise Me" appears on Mahalia's EP Seasons. This song displays poetic elements through its ability to convey an experience through the use of song.

The song tell the tale of a long-distance relationship, and how this relationship eventually suffers. The song begins with the lyrics:

       I'm waking up and you just fell asleep
       It's funny cause you think I'm meant to be
       Used to this
       If you only know what you are to me
       You'd understand why this hard
       I'm new to this

These lines indicate that the speaker is in a long distance relationship and it is difficult to navigate over a distance. By specifically targeting aspects of a long distance relationship (e.g. being awake at different times), the audience is able to visualize better what it would be like to be in a long distance relationship. The direct language helps the audience understand clearly how the speaker feels, and gives the lyrics a frankness--as if the musician were speaking directly to them.

The speaker continues to reference specific elements of the relationship that are difficult with lines such as "You say 'don't wanna live your life through photos'", and "You say 'don't want to live your life through phone calls'". These two statements are from the perspective of the speaker's partner, and indicate that they are also experiencing difficulties with the trouble of a long distance relationship. As these are all things they have said to the speaker, it adds an extra layer of tension; the speaker's partner is deciding that they no longer find the relationship worth pursuing due to the literal distance between them. This helps the audience understand how a relationship can decay.

The speaker's partner is not the only one unsatisfied with the distance between them. The speaker states:

       I fell asleep and you're just waking up
       I've had enough of always waiting up
       For you

This indicates that she is also feeling pressured by the relationship. However, it seems that a lot of the responsibility to continue the relationship is being put on her, as she is the one staying up late to talk to him, and the lyrics referenced in the beginning indicate that her partner is not willing to stay up late to speak with her. This is an added level of stress to their relationship as one person is putting in all of the work while the other becomes unwilling to do anything, causing tension. This helps the audience understand and feel for the speaker. They can now visualize the situation and empathize with it.

This song does an excellent job of conveying an experience through words, and for this reason it may be considered poetry.

The New Shakespeare: Music

When assigned the assignment to analyze a song for it's poetic lyrics, I honestly thought it would be a piece of cake. After scrolling through my playlists, I struggled a bit to find a song that was both meaningful and coherent, as well as awesome. I finally hit the jackpot when I came upon "Timmy's Prayer" by Sampha, off his debut album Process. Sampha begins the song with his chorus,

If ever you're listening
If heaven's a prison
Then I am your prisoner

Sampha seems to be addressing a past love of his, someone he wishes he still had. His use of an oxymoron represents the variety of feelings he felt during his time with this girl. He as mixed emotions, sometimes seeing his relationship as heavenly, and sometimes seeing it as a prison. Despite this, he goes on to say he's a "prisoner," symbolizing his devotion and willingness to suffer for this person.  After mentioning his inability to get this girl back, he starts getting very emotional and deep. He expresses his sorrow when he says,

My vital organs are beating through
My rib cage opened, my heart ballooned
I, I've lost another one

His choice of diction here paints a graphic image in the listeners mind, one that shows the struggle he is going through. It's not just any ordinary person he lost, but someone who he loved for his life. He now feels devastated and lost. What makes it worse, Sampha realizes, is the contrast between his old life and new life.  He says

Sunshine and blue skies, yes I recall
But now there's a darker blue
The sun sinks and you're not there 

Without his lover, he now feels lonely and without any support. They used to be "blue skies," representing happiness and love. Now, the skies are darker, representing sadness and loneliness. The contrast is so significant and it's all because of this one girl. Lastly, in his last verse, Sampha returns to the prison motif. This time, he changes the words a bit, saying

I wish that I listened when I was in prison
Now I'm a visitor
I came to the gates but you turned me away

This time, Sampha is flashing back to when he was in the relationship, referring to it as prison. He regrets not listening and being a "prisoner." Because of this, he's now a visitor with no connection or relationship with the girl. He's now on the outside, just like a visitor in a prison. Sampha's hopeless feelings about this girl are finally confirmed when he approaches "the gates," referring to heaven and thus his ex-girlfriend. Unfortunately, she turns him away, and he repeats one more time the chorus of the song. Although it's a sad and emotional song, the lyrics are able to come to life because of Sampha's diction, use of symbolism, and other poetic strategies. The listener is able to feel the heartfelt message he is singing to the fullest.