Let Us Assemble!

Christopher Tin's album, Calling All Dawns (you can read about it on his website and listen to it here), is without a doubt, my favorite collection of songs every composed. It's a "classical crossover" album, which essentially means at its core it's classical, but is composed in such a way that it is more accessible to the common listener than a Tchaikovsky symphony. Each song on the album is sung in a different language and has musical influences from that language's respective culture. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra plays in every song, but because each song is in a different language, the singing group varies from song to song, making each number that much more unique and special.

Before singling out a specific song, it's important to note that the album is split into three movements: day, night, and dawn. Each movement also corresponds with a different phase of life as well: life, death, and rebirth, respectively. And while there are technically 12 songs on the album, the album itself acts as a single song, because each song transitions seamlessly into the next. The steady stream of music reflects the cyclical nature of the day-night cycle, and also life itself: it goes from the musically varied day cycle, with all the complexities of life represented by each individual chord, to the slow, sorrowful night cycle, to the exuberant and triumphant dawn cycle, and then ends on the same chord that the album started on, bringing everything full circle. Tin strove to create a musical representation of humanity and life in Calling All Dawns, and he succeeded.

There is one song on the album that is a personal favorite of mine, however, and that is the final song in the movement of the day, "Rassemblons-Nous", or "Let Us Assemble". "Rassemblons-Nous" is written in French, and is one of only two songs on the albums with original lyrics (the other original being the Portugese "Se É Pra Vir Que Venha", and the rest of the songs' lyrics being adopted from traditional texts such as the Torah, Bhagavad Gita, and cultural proverbs) and is musically interesting in a lot of ways, but that will have to come later. You can find a full translation of the song on Tin's website. You have to scroll down to Calling All Dawns and then click lyrics. He also was kind enough to write a bit about the inspiration for the song as well as some of what it means. If scrolling around Tin's simple website seems like too much, though, you can also find a translation here, though there's a little discrepancy in the translation, so I suggest sucking it up and checking out Tin's website.

The lyrics are simple and straightforward -- the speaker doesn't use metaphors, similes, or any obscure literary technique to try to illustrate some sort of symbolic message. I believe that that is completely intentional. The song itself was inspired by the French Revolution and the 2005 riots, both of which were notable for being started by the French masses. By using simple language, the song reflects the grassroots nature of both of these social movements, and the idea that freedom and equality are for everyone, even the common man. So, the song is easy to understand regardless of education: the best plan for progress is unity. "Our thousand faces/ on one screen/ to declare/ with a single voice/ we mustn't yield/ we mustn't disappear". It's pretty hard to misinterpret its literal meaning.

Christopher Tin, however, is a clever little man, and his song has a double meaning. When looking at the song from a historically tinted lens, the lyrics tell the listener how to properly hold a revolution. But he never specifically references any historical event or political institution -- instead, the song is just about gathering to face some nameless evil or opposition. This is where knowing the context of the album is helpful. "Rassemblons-Nous" is the last song of the day, and, consequently, life. The album is illustrating the transition from day to night, life to death, and "Rassemblons-Nous" shows that people aren't willing to succumb to death without a fight. This is where his diction gets fun. The only reference he makes to what the people are assembling against is "deepest darkness", which, while simple, has a bunch of different angles that it can be approached from. The most apparent meaning is night itself -- the album is transitioning to the movement of the night, and "darkness" foreshadows that. Darkness, however, is also associated with death, especially when referred to as "deepest darkness", because you can't get much darker than death. Additionally, darkness itself is confusing -- you can't see when it's dark, so by creating that image, Tin is able to create a sense of chaos and fear of the unknown. The people are uniting against death, and "Despite my fear/ of giving up/ I go forward/ to rise up/ at the moment/ of truth/ we mustn't yield/ we mustn't disappear".

Christopher Tin shows how unified all of humanity is in the face of death. The entire song is a call to arms for everyone, people "From foul prisons/ from nameless cities/ from sacred rooms/ in silver towers/ on every front/ all at once/ let us sound the wake-up call/ in constant struggle/ our voices unite/ our steps are sounding/ behind the scenes/ with neither fear nor hate/ these coming days/ let us take the stage". Everyone is equal in death, and that equality trumps any arbitrary form of inequality created by society. The speaker is constantly talking to the masses, using "us" language, which helps create this sense of unity. Whether you're a prisoner or a priest, you're called upon to march against death, to show that humanity is strong and will fight and will unite no matter how bleak or inevitable the future seems. The simplicity of the language applies here as well -- everyone needs to hear this call, so it must be straight forward.

I know this post is already long, but I wouldn't be doing this song justice if I didn't at least touch a little bit on how the song's composition enhances the meaning. There are at least two compositional traits of the song that I think are essential to understanding the true meaning of the song: the use of more modern, pop instruments like the drum set in conjunction with the orchestra and the use of tense sounding chords followed by resolutions.

The most unique part of "Rassemblons-Nous" from a sound standpoint is the use of modern mixing and instrumentation. The song starts with a remixed type of sound from the orchestra, which signals a change in tone for the album as it starts to transition to the movement of the night. The drum set starts out as a soft tapping in the background, keeping the pulse going, but then grows into a heavy, driving force that comes close to dominating the song. It gives a constant feeling of forward motion, almost as if the listener is getting pushed against their will. They're heavy, and certainly not joyful, but they're not aggressive either. They just march forward, and there is nothing that can stop them, just like death.

In the song, there is a constant feeling of tug and pull. Many of the chords in the song sound minor, tense, and foreboding, but just as you think you have the song figured out, he resolves it to something that's major and uplifting. This is Tin's way of illustrating the story he tells in his lyrics through his music: a frightening darkness is approaching, but there is some sense of hope as we unify under our humanity and face it together. The song ends with an aggressive minor, tense sound crescendos into a triumphant sounding major chord, marking victory in some form for humanity. The song ends with a soft brass call that fades into nothingness, signaling that, although the day has ended, there is still hope for an eventual dawn, an eventual rebirth.

I highly recommend this album.

Don't Think Twice It's Alright

Being a pianist, most of the music that I listen to doesn't have words. But, for as long as I can remember, Bob Dylan has always been playing in my house. An incredible artist, many of his songs share similar aspects of the multi-dimensional poetry that we analyze in class, so I thought it would be fun to pick one of my favorites, "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright." 


In the literal sense, the poem is about Bob Dylan leaving the girl he is in love with because she won't commit to the relationship. Dylan begins by repeating the phrase, "Well it ain't no use" with various phrases to show that she wouldn't take what he wanted to give her, and really only wanted what he couldn't give her. In a sad tone, he states, "And it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe/ The light I never knowed/ An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe/ I'm on the dark side of the road/ But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say/ To try and make me change my mind and stay/ We never did too much talkin' anyway/ But don't think twice, it's all right." The listener can see from this that Dylan wanted and tried to gain a connection with this woman, but there's no use because she won't try to make things right. Turning on your light could refer to loving him or pretending to love him so he would stay. As a result, there isn't any use in her trying to make him stay, because their feelings about each other in the relationship will always be imbalanced. 

The last verse sums up his final attitude of the woman pretty well. He says, "So long, honey babe/ Where I'm bound, I can't tell/ Goodbye's too good a word, babe/ So I'll just say fare thee well/ I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind/ You coulda done better but I don't mind/ You just kinda wasted my precious time/ But don't think twice, it's all right." It is pretty evident that Dylan is bitter about the situation. Even though he loves her, he wants her to know that she screwed up what could have been a great thing. The phrase "Goodbye's too good a word, babe" is harsh! Because there she has no truly good intentions, he only says, "fare thee well". If you look at the phrase "fare thee well," one sees that it sounds like "fairly well". I think that line is pure genius. It sums up what the two people had- something that was just alright. 

However, his situation with the relationship just being "alright" can easily be flipped into a metaphor for life and circumstances like these. While the end of the song makes it seem as though he hates the girl, I also see it as, "don't worry about it, everything is gonna be ok." I think Dylan does an amazing job of communicating two opposite messages in the song while still keeping the general theme focused. It leaves the work open for interpretation. 

How Does it Make You Feel?

My favorite band of the "current age"and perhaps my favorite band of all time (although, to be fair, the earlier music is from the last century) is a French electronic band named Air.  Their sound is enchantingly ethereal, and the lyrics really work with the music to maximize the effect.  The purpose of this post, however, is to focus on the lyrics of a specific song of theirs in an effort to defend it as poetry.  For this I chose the song that first drew me to Air, "How Does It Make You Feel?"  The sound is nothing short of delicious and the song is simply not the same without it.  Nonetheless, the words on their own are very powerful and the lyrical conclusion is what compelled me to explore more of Air's music.

The song is written in first-person and addresses a beloved "you".  The speaker confesses his love/admiration, which is "very hard to say in your presence", and works to assuage the fears or doubts she holds about their future together.  Throughout his heart-spilling, the speaker continually asks for her feedback, devoting the whole chorus to the question "How does it make you feel?"  After many lines of grandiose, figurative praise (not too different to that of romantic sonnets) and 12 iterations of his question, he finally gets her (albeit indirect) response: "Well, I really think you should stop smoking." 

Bam!  I don't think I'll ever stop savoring that line.  The ironic ending really sets off the rest of the poem, which has a sort of strange, eerie tone to it - almost as if the whole time the listener is being asked how it makes them feel and it is disturbing to find that you don't know.  The hyperbole existent in the majority of the poem is juxtaposed with a cavalier, 'hypobolic' response.  The combination of the two speakers goes beyond conveying each of their individual experiences; it gives insight into their relationship that likely not even they understand, gifting the listener with an experience only they can boast. 

Poetically speaking, I think the coolest element of this song is its thematic complexity.  There are so many different interpretations even just among the responses on songmeanings.com, none of which necessarily match up with mine.  The pondering and the resounding "wow" in my thoughts that this song even now imparts to me is something that I generally look for in poems and what I believe strongly categorizes this song as a poem itself.

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

I think the song "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" from the album Funeral by Arcade Fire is a good example of poetry in song lyrics. As a bit of context, the band created Funeral after a few members dealt with deaths in their families. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" is the first song on the album and like the following songs, it addresses love, family, and growing up in a poetic way. This song in particular tells the narrative of the speaker and his love interest to nostalgically describe the naiveté of young love.


The song begins with childish imagery:

And if the snow buries my, my neighborhood.
 /And if my parents are crying
 /Then I'll dig a tunnel from my window to yours,
 /Yeah, a tunnel from my window to yours.

The first verse is about the pains of growing up. It juxtaposes the painful coming of age experience of seeing a parent cry with the playful, childish image of a snow tunnel connecting two houses. The setting that the speaker goes on to describe is a sort of whimsical suburban place: a dream-like world in which he and his companion can escape from the harsh realities of adulthood and the difficulties of family life. The imagery, while simple in its childish nature, gives the song a nostalgic, longing mood.


Eventually, however, the couple must confront their past:

Then we tried to name our babies /But we forgot all the names that /The names we used to know. /But sometimes, we remember our bedrooms, /And our parents' bedrooms, /And the bedrooms of our friends.

I think the repetition of the word bedroom here emphasizes the way the images of his past haunt the speaker. The lyrics have a sort of stream of consciousness feel here: one memory leads to another. The choice of the word bedroom in itself is interesting: bedrooms are personal, emphasizing the close nature of the relationships that the speaker has abandoned.


The song repeats the verse:

You change all the lead /Sleeping in my head to gold /As the days grow dim /I hear you sing a golden hymn

This is where it's a song about love. The lead represents the dark thoughts that weigh on the speaker, including memories of his past. His companion in the song does some metaphorical alchemy to fill his mind with better thoughts. That said, the gold imagery also suggests he's idealizing his love interest.


Perrine's definition describes poetry as a way to communicate experience. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" uses the narrative of a young couple to communicate the pains of growing up, the beauty of love, but also the danger of isolation and ignoring the past.

Worsening

I must admit, I was hesitant to discuss this song at first. Baths (Will Wiesenfeld) is a very complex artist and Obsidian, his third studio album, is a very dark and brooding collection of songs that convey emotions I have never felt. Nonetheless, his message is extremely provocative and captivating. "Worsening," the opening song from Obsidian, is about Wiesenfeld's inability to find meaning in a life that has done nothing for him. He finds no purpose behind the common man's faith, and as a result contemplates suicide. 

The song opens with:

Birth was like a fat, black tongue,
Dripping tar and dung and dye
Slowly into my shivering eyes.

In this opening verse, Baths uses an extended simile to express the discontent he felt from birth. The multifaceted imagery creates a concept of the black, malicious burdens that are placed on Wiesenfeld from the day he was born. As it is, the image of a baby being brought into a cold and dark world, shivering, makes the listener uncomfortable, yet you become intrigued by Weisenfeld's low, shuddering voice.

I might walk upright
But then again
I still might try to die.

In this moment, Baths scrutinizes his choice to go on in a world that brings about nothing but severe disappointment and depression. This stanza is extremely effective through its use of ambiguity. This ambiguity stems from his own confused mental state, and it keeps the audience unclear of his intentions. As a man with no purpose (and aware of such), he is debating whether or not to continue going about his life, and whether or not that will still lead him to suicide.

Never prayed, never paid any attention,
Never felt any affection,
Never a lot of thought to life. 

Baths expresses here the bland tone of his life that led him to feel so unsatisfied. A man with no faith, he cannot care; he cannot love. He employs an anaphora to effectively talk about his inability to feel. By beginning every phrases with "Never," we understand that the simple joys in our lives that we find impossible not to feel at times are completely void from the artist's life.

Where is God when you hate him the most?
When the mouths in the earth come to bite at my robes,
Hell that sits below, of you would do well to bellow
At the cold, the lifeless, the worsening souls. 

This last stanza is surely my favorite in the song, yet the most discomforting. Baths observes that God cannot exist if He does not respond to those who attempt to communicate with Him. He (as Baths puts it) does not punish those who hate nor does He reciprocate those who devote their love to God. By personifying the earth in association with Hell, Baths is practically inviting Hell to take him and the other "lifeless [and] worsening souls" to its depths. Banishing those souls to Hell, as Baths perhaps believes, would signify that God does in fact exist.

While I myself do not empathize with Baths in this song, his conveyance beyond lyrics by using discordant notes and syncopated rhythms creates a very unresolved and distressed song. "Worsening" by Baths is one of the most interesting and poetic songs I've heard in the past few years, and the musicality of his work in both Obsidian and Cerulean makes Baths an extremely eccentric and peculiar up-and-coming artist.

Le Photographe est mort

   The song that I choose to defend as an incredible example of poetry is "Taro" by alt-J off of their first album, An Awesome Wave. Being the closing song to a revolutionary new album and style of alternative music, Taro is based on the story of Gerda Taro and Robert Capa. The two were war photographers during the mid-20th century and were in a relationship. The song itself is focused on the four second period before and after Robert Capa is blown up by a mine while photographing in Indochina. It also mentions Taro, who was killed in the Spanish Civil War twenty years earlier. The audience that alt-J seems to be aiming for is to highlight some of those lost from the horrors of combat-related death. No one thinks about others like medics or photographers who die in battle, and the emotional connection between Taro and Capa make for a provoking and interesting lyrical masterpiece.

 The first peace of poetic form that I found was the two lines to end the first stanza. The lines go "They advance as does his chance, very yellow white flash/ A violent wrench grips mass, rips light, tears limbs like rags." The transition and lack of information to the listener about what exactly his chance of encountering is, until the mine has already exploded and hit him. The description of the explosion and the force that the mine has is amazing and violent as it "rips light" with its own flash. All of this action and drama occurs in such a small sliver of time but creates a horrid picture for the photographer.

Later on, as Capa has landed after the explosion, his position is described as being, "From medic from colleague, friend, enemy, foe/ Him five yards from his leg, from you, Taro." This line offers a gruesome look into Capa's position, while also offering a deeper and different look into his position. It also adds an interesting, almost limbo aspect to the position he is in, where he is equidistant from medics and friends and his now detached leg and his love, Taro.

The last section of interesting poetic language used in "Taro" is the repeated line of, "Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes." The meaning of this goes with the explosion and his profession as a photographer at this time. When someone gets blown up, you would expect their vision to be poor after a "very yellow white flash," But the image of his secret wife is sprayed across his eyes instead of medicine, making his coming death calm and safe. Also, the line ,"All colors and cares glaze to gray,shriveled and stricken to dots." goes with Capa's photography, almost describing it as an outside view of a photo of his own death. Being a wartime photographer, Capa took many pictures of dying men, so the image of himself is quite interesting as he becomes what he took.

Also, although I may get some push back from Mr. Heidkamp, I think that the rhythm of this song makes it more poetic than others. Instead of focusing on rhymes in four strict lines, the words flow and connect in a fluid manner and make the sound much more majestic than if it were upbeat and parallel.

Overall the song and basically everything by alt-J is poetic in some way. Just watch the music videos from any of their albums, from the reverse murder in "Breezeblocks" to the modern version of Raphael's school of Athens in "Tessellate." If you want a video full of deeper meaning, check that out. :333

La Poesía de Juanes es como la Poesía de los Dioses

Juanes is one of the most popular musicians in Latin America.  His pop hit "A Dios le Pido," which literally means "I ask God," was released in 2002 and has been both a Latin-American and international anthem ever since.  I chose to defend this song as poetry because it has a lot of meaning to me in context.  We listened to it almost daily on my study-abroad trip to Spain two summers ago, so it reminds me of my friends on the trip and my whole experience in general.

For the purposes of this analysis, I will be using the English translations of the lyrics, but some of the phrasing in this version of the lyrics will be a little awkward because some of the words and expressions do not translate perfectly.  (This version of the English lyrics is not perfect, but it is the best I could find.)  I highly recommend listening to the song in Spanish, though, as it is a beautiful piece when it is all tied together.

The song is a call for peace, love, and unity.  I believe that Juanes wanted to portray the persona of a regular young Latin-American person as the speaker in the song.  The concepts addressed in the lyrics, like peace, love, and posterity, are things that many young people living in the often poor, violence-filled, and corrupt countries of Latin America wish for.  The audience, thus, is the entire world population that is faced with the ugly realities of war, violence, and injustice.  The song involves the speaker recalling how he asks God to bless and protect his family, friends, and community in times of crisis in order to ensure peace and justice in the lives of future generations.  The song, then, serves the purpose of making a call for peace.  Also, according to Perrine, poetry both broadens and deepens an experience.  I believe that "A Dios le Pido" does just this by giving the listener an introspective look at the wishes of a regular man but taking them beyond country borders to reveal a collective worldwide desire for peace.  We would not know this person's deep thoughts if they were not revealed to us in such as catchy a way as through poetry.  The "border-less" aspect of these lyrics fits Perrine's definition of poetry as being universal.

Juanes's poetic lyrics include many examples of multidimensional language.  The frequently used word "God," for example, has many interpretations when used in the context of the other lyrics.  The use of "I pray to God that" followed by numerous wishes throughout the song adds to the universal plea for peace that serves as the song's purpose.  When the speaker says "I pray to God that that my people not spill so much blood," the context implies that the "God" receiving the plea is not just God himself, but the people of the speaker's country whom he wishes to bring to peace.  The poem also utilizes parallel syntax with the lines "I pray to God/ That my mother not die/ And that my father remembers me" and "I pray to God/ For the children of my children/ And the children of your children."  The lines have similar structure with the reference of multiple people and the use of the word "and." The fact that the speaker is wishing for these people to be blessed also adds depth to the universal and community aspects of the poem's meaning by creating a multi-generational image of the world that needs peace to thrive.  Finally, the lines "I pray to God/ If I die, may it be of love/ And if I fall in love, may it be with you" use multidimensional language in that the "love" in question can be either romantic love or love as peace.  The "you" that is the object of the love, then, can either be a romantic interest or one's community.  These dimensions add even greater depth to the song's "universal peace" purpose.

I strongly believe that "A Dios le Pido" qualifies as a poem, and how incredible is it that the lyrics can be poetic in TWO languages?????  That's pretty impressive, if I must say so myself.

The A Team

 When I heard about this assignment, my mind immediately jumped to Ed Sheeran's "The A Team" from the album +. I always thought the song was beautiful, but it wasn't until I really looked at the lyrics that I truly appreciated it as poetry. Ed Sheeran has said in interviews that he wrote the song after visiting a homeless shelter and talking to the people about their lives. From that, he compiled a song about  the fall of angel. "The A Team" invites the listener to experience the life of a girl who just can't catch a break in life. While she is a prostitute and a cocaine addict, the main point of the song is that under all of that she is a good person. The girl wants to get out, and is not happy with her life, but she's trapped in the addiction. She is slowly killing herself, but she can't stop. I really like this song because it shows the many dimensions of a person's life. If we see a homeless person on the street, we judge them or at least expect in some way they have been mixed up with drugs. In this song, Ed Sheeran has created sympathy, and shown us their lives, goals, and fears. He successfully conveys that unfortunately, sometimes good people can be forced by circumstances to make bad decisions, and try as they might, they can't get out.

This theme is represented by many poetic devices, but perhaps most by the multidimensional use of cold imagery. The song opens with the line "White lips, pale face/ breathing in the snowflakes." In this line, the snowflakes represent cocaine, and the drug addiction. However, one of the main lines of the song, "Its too cold outside/ for angels to fly" uses cold in a different way. In this line, I interpret the cold to be the challenges that overwhelm and weigh down good people. These people are angels underneath, but this world does not permit them to "fly" because of bad decisions and circumstances. Ed Sheeran also uses irony to show how things never seem to go right in lines such as, "Dry house, wet clothes" and "Call girl, no phone." For some reason (perhaps a cocaine addiction) her life seems to always be in shambles. That being said, the girl realizes that she has made mistakes in life, and she wants to change. I think one of the most powerful lines in the song is, "And she don't want to go outside tonight." In this line, outside functions as both literally outside, and also the world of prostitution and drugs. She doesn't want to repeat the pattern of the prostitution, the high, and then the crash, but ultimately she will have to. She thinks that maybe if she can stay inside, her life will be okay. Another line describes, "Stuck in her daydream." She dreams of a better life, but can't achieve it because of the addiction. In the end, she is disappointed with her life, but can do nothing to change. The song ends, "An angel will die/ covered in white/ closed eyed/ hoping for a better life."  Through this song, listeners understand sometimes good people get caught up in bad things, and they want help and an escape, but can't get it. The song tells a tragic story, but it has definitely left me with an enhanced experience and understanding of this poor girl's struggle.

You're Damaged

The first album that came to mind when we were asked to choose a song that we would defend as poetry was Cerulean Salt.  It is not my favorite album or even in my top five favorite albums of 2013 but the earnest delivery of its lyrics reminded me of many poetry readings I had heard.  Katie Crutchfield the artist at the center of Waxahatchee writes lyrics that are specific which seem to be two things that good poems often are.  The song "You're Damaged" is the albums closing track and is about the difference between adult and child friendships.  

The speaker of the poem is a disenchanted adult who has found life to be less exciting than she had imagined it to be growing up.  The audience of the poem is her friend who the speaker has known since she was eleven and who she has stayed in touch with over the years. The song is taking place when they are together after years of being apart and find that their relationship is not the same as when they were young.  The song depicts the distance between the two friends that developed as they aged and the subsequent unhappiness it caused.  

The poem shows that the two friends were happy and close as children in a stanza in which they run with "sabers and sticks," sabers being the swords they pretended the sticks were, "to [their] peace." The lines show that they always pictured themselves living their lives happily side by side.  But, as the lyrics point out, they were always destined to separately experience "chaos, condolence, [and] defeat."  In the present time, the friends are sad and unable to connect.  The speaker uses the metaphor of herself having a shell to describe the barriers that they put up emotionally.  The lyrics conclude "We’ll cut our hands agape and manifest / Compassion we'll lose with time and test," conveying that through their pain of growing up together they will develop compassion which they ultimately lose as they age further.  The lyrics are effective because they are a collection of short sentences that are self contained ideas that create an abstract story.  The disjointedness of the lyrics gives it the feeling of a memory which connects to the central literary device of flashbacks used in the song. 

"Ain't No Rest for the Wicked"

Cage the Elephant's song, "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked" is a bonus track from their album, Cage the Elephant. This song is broken up into three stories each dealing with a different theme: lust, temptation, and greed. This song is about what lengths people would go to for money. It plays on the idea that people are forced to do this because of the flaws in society. It also mentions how once they get started in this life they have no where else to go but forward. "I know I can't slow down,/ I can't hold back though you know I wish I could". The first story, the narrator runs into a prostitute. After offering her services, the narrator asks why she does this. In the second story, the narrator is held up at gunpoint. The narrator then says that he will comply if he first tells him why he does this. In the third story, the narrator turns on the TV and sees a preacher robbing from his church on the news. The prostitute and the mugger both reply to his question with:

"There ain't no rest for the wicked,

Money don't grow on trees,  

I've got bills to pay,

I've got mouths to feed, 

Ain't nothing in this world for free. 

I know I can't slow down, 

I can't hold back though you know I wish I could, 

No there ain't no rest for the wicked, 

Until we close our eyes for good." 

I think this song looks deeper into the problems humans face when they are put in a difficult situation. When faced with lust, greed, and temptation, most will give in and the ones that do have a difficult time stopping once they start. This song reminded me of the quote, "The love of money is the root of all evil", because the song is saying how money corrupted these peoples lives in different ways.


According to Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry, "Poetry takes all life as its province...poetry as a whole is concerned with all kinds of experience--beautiful or ugly, strange or common, noble or ignoble, actual or imaginary." Since a poem has to do with experience and the response made by the reader, "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked" could be a poem because it tells a story of three separate encounters he had with greed and it created a response from the reader that there is a flaw in our system, that people are being forced to do whatever it takes for money because they don't have any other choice, and that once they start they don't have any option except to keep going.


The writer of "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked" uses imagery, irony, paradoxes, and repetition to enhance the meaning. Imagery is used when the writer describes the prostitute. When he says that she is such a "sweet young thing" he seems to be taken by surprise that someone so young and innocent looking is prostituting herself for money. The writer uses irony to show how it is ironic that the person you would think to be the most holy, the preacher, is actually stealing from his own church just for money. The line, "I know I can't slow down,/ I can't hold back though you know I wish I could,/ No there ain't no rest for the wicked,/Until we close our eyes for good" is an example of a paradox because it almost contradicts itself when it says that they want to stop but they can't and they won't be able to until they are dead. This helps enhance the meaning that people are forced into these situations with no way out. Repetition also plays a role in enhancing the meaning because when the prostitute and the robber are asked why they would do such a thing they both reply with the same answer that they did it for money. It shows that money plays such a large role in peoples lives and their actions.

Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst

Kendrick Lamar features on his newest album, good kid, m.A.A.d city, a song entitled "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst." This 12:03 minute song adds to the albums theme of Kendrick rapping about his past experiences of living in Compton. The song is split up into two parts; Sing About Me and I'm Dying of Thirst. The three verses in the first part are all from different point of views. In the first verse he raps from the perspective of a friend of Kendrick's whose brother has just been killed with Kendrick by his side. Kendrick's friend seems to be talking to Kendrick on the phone and he tells him that he is happy for Kendrick for being able to rise from Compton, aka the m.A.A.d city, and not succumb to the gang violence and other bad influences the city has to offer. On the other hand, Kendrick's friend is a VICTIM of Compton (I capitalize victim because this message Kendrick is trying to get across is positive and not negative). The song reads "Everybody's a victim in my eyes/ When I ride, it's a murderous rhythm and outside became pitch black/ A demon glued to my back whispering, 'Get em'/ I got 'em, and I ain't give a fuck." Kendrick uses the imagery of a murderous rhythm and the blackness outside to show how Compton is a dark place to be raised and his friend is subconsciously being told by himself, "a demon glued to my back," to go out and seek revenge for his lost brother.

In the next verse, the point of view comes from a sister of a prostitute who Kendrick rapped about in his previous album, Section.80, in a song called "Keisha's Song (Her Pain)". Keisha's sister is yelling at Kendrick for featuring her sister's private life in his album which in turn has effected his and her life of being a prostitute as well. She goes on to acknowledge that it isn't her fault that she has taken this path in life by saying, "See, my hormones just run away and if i can get 'em back/ to where they used to be then I'll probably be in the denim/ Of a family gene that show women hot to be woman/ Or better yet, a leader, you need her to learn somethin'/ Then you probably need to beat her, that's how I was taught." The play on the word "gene" in reference to denim shows the importance of this line. She is saying that maybe if she grew up in a place where she was loved instead of a foster home she wouldn't be in the place she is now.

In the final verse, the audience finally gets Kendrick's point of view where he brings it all together. After asking himself if he is scared of dying he says "If it's today, i hope i hear a/ Cry out from heaven so loud it can water down a demon/ With the holy ghost 'til it drown in the blood of Jesus." He references a lot of biblical terms to show how when he dies he hope to make it to heaven even though he is surrounded by sin. Finally he gets to the "what" of his song, he ends up speaking to the earlier speakers in the song and tells them that he needed to sing about them because if he didn't then he would be "Cursing the life of twenty generations after her soul." Kendrick is sharing his experience with the world from these different points of view in order to show people "something that's  realer than the TV screen" in order to save his hometown of Compton.