Dreams Come True

Imagine Dragons released their album Smoke + Mirrors in 2015. The lead singer is Dan Reynolds. Along with this album was the incredibly inspiring song "Warriors." This song develops its literal meaning around the idea that working hard gets "you" places.

The setting of the poem is a medieval time with a child dreaming to be great. The speaker, who I believe is the singer because to be a singer he put in an enormous amount of effort to accomplish his dreams. This speaker puts the reader/listener into different perspectives throughout the poem. One of which is the hard-working boy. It is curious why the listener/reader is put into the song. It may be because in today's world is is difficult to achieve everything (money, wealth, power) from nothing (poor status). Therefore the literal meaning closely relates to what feels impossible in the present world. The song relays the image of a boy working in childhood:

But you always knew that you'd be the one to work while they all play. 

As the song continues it is clear that in between stanzas the young boy grew into a powerful man.

In youth you'd lay awake at night and scheme

Of all the things that you would change, but it was just a dream! 

Here we are

 The powerful man, a king, now knows the benefit and reward of working hard. This internal knowledge changes the reader's perspective from the boy to another hardworking person (yourself). The king gives his sage advice through his own experience as a child and leaves. The tone then changes to one of pride because of the new accomplishments the reader made. These accomplishments about helping the king build the town from dust are emphatically sung by the lead singer of Imagine Dragons.

Overall, the song uses diction describing medieval characteristics to build the foundation and setting of the story. The tone of encouragement throughout the stanzas blends with the diction to create a world where the listener/reader can do anything. By using these literary devices, the song has an uplifting quality that sends the message: "you can do anything if you put hard work into it."