For my poetic song, I chose to do, "Harvest Moon", from the album Harvest, by Neil Young. Neil Young wrote, and added this song to his album, for his former wife, Pegi Young.
This song depicts the strong love that two people once shared and continue to, even after they no longer are each others lovers. The song believes that even if these two people are no longer together in a romantic sense, being that they have found their own paths or were separated by other circumstances, that their love can still be everlasting. The song opens as if the two are still in a romantic relationship and seems to convey that the two will continue to be in this relationship. It creates this feeling of warmth with a promise to dream the night away as if they were children. This imagery of something as sweet and beautiful as delighted childhood innocence allows for the listener to imagine the two people still together and living for one and another.
However, the song takes a sharp turn when it says in the second verse (quote below). While it is very subtle, by saying, "When we were lovers", it becomes apparent that the two people who seemed so eternally in love in the first verse of the song are no longer romantically involved.
When we were strangers
I watched you from afar
When we were lovers
I loved you with all my heartBy using the repetition of the line "when we", which is used throughout the song, the speaker is able to create this feeling of love that never really changes throughout the song, even as their relationship changes. This is because no matter what type of relationship the two people are in, when it is presented with the same monotonous two word opening the feelings and emotions of love described after each opening starts to blend together. This blend of emotions allows for the listener of the song to completely overlook the sad, changing circumstances of the lovers relationship. I don't know if the speaker would necessarily describe the changes as sad, because he believes the love is still the same, but he also acknowledges that he misses the relationship he had with with his former lover.
Finally, in the end of the song, the speaker confesses that he would like to dance with his lover once more. The speaker uses the image of the moon throughout the poem to convey a sense of eternality for the two peoples love. However this image of the moon relates most strongly to the theme of eternal love despite circumstances when at the end the speaker admits that they once more want to dance in the moonlight with his lover, despite how long they have been apart. I thought that last verse of the poem was extremely beautiful. This is because the speaker not only uses gentle imagery to create a depiction of natural love, but he also repeats over and over again that he's still in love with his former lover in short direct syntax that make it feel so much more dire, or at least serious. This lasting desire shows that no matter how much things change, the love the speaker feels for his former lover is eternal.
I've loved this song for a long time, it's on more than one of my Spotify playlists. I always got the general idea of what the song is about, but getting that background of who he wrote the song about makes it much more meaningful and sad, or real. I feel like a lot of romantic songs today aren't about a specific person but are about an idea of a person. The realism of the song and as you said the almost childish innocence that is present throughout it gives the lyrics some sort of heightened emotional connection to the listener and makes it a much "deeper" song.
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