Lyric Essays (Examples)

Lyrics for the Song, Your Reasons for Choosing it, And the Source Information
The song that was chosen is titled Airplanes by B.O.B. The lyrics are, "Can we pretend that airplanes. In the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now. Wish right now, wish right now. Can we pretend that airplanes In the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now. Wish right now, wish right now. Yeah, I could use a dream or a genie or a wish. To go back to a place much simpler than this. 'Cause after all the partyin' and smashin' and crashin'. And all the glitz and the glam and the fashion. And all the pandemonium and all the madness. There comes a time where you fade to the blackness

And when you starin' at that phone in your lap. And you…

Children (most times adolescents, although sometimes younger) left their families to seek their fortune in America. America became famous (and notorious to the pious) as the 'goldeneh medinah' 5 where it was literally believed that the streets were paved with gold (and where one lost one's religion). ussian emigration created the first massive influx of Jews to America. Once there, Jewish life as implicated in the lyrics took on a different turn, and became almost obsolete.
The Shtetl Way of life; Cheder; and Jewish scholarship.

estricted from turning outward, the Jews turned inwards and focus sharpened on Jewish scholarliness exclusively for the males. It was the elite who became a Talmid Chocham 6, and the Jewish housewife, often, supported her spouse so that he could continue to learn 7. Jewish scholarship defined the yichus (i.e., pedigree) (or lack of it) of the family, and Jewish orthodoxy was heavily bent on yichus.…

Popular Song Lyrics
Poetry has its origin in performed song, but there is a profound difference between a poem written to be read and lyrics written to be sung. This is due to the power of music: it acts upon the feelings without articulating anything, and harnessed to lyrics music may seem to lend emotive force to whatever (if anything) is endorsed in the text. s a result, writing lyrics to a contemporary pop song entails a fairly simple formula: all that is required are lyrics obey a law of vagueness, such that anyone can identify with it. The listener can imagine almost anything that matches his or her sense of what the tune "means." s far as the major record labels are concerned, a song only needs to be a sufficient advertisement for itself -- a "radio-friendly unit-shifter," to borrow a phrase from Kurt Cobain, where "radio-friendly" indicates a song's…

BLO
Boston Lyric Opera: Case study

Customer objectives for its three strategic themes

Develop loyal and generous supporters

There are two major elements to this goal of the opera company -- that of building customer loyalty and generosity. Funds from tickets are not enough alone, so the opera must solicit donations. Keeping track of donations is an essential metric to using a Balanced Scorecard approach. But there is another component of this metric -- determining the demographics from whom the donations are solicited. The BLO wishes to build its young, professional donor segment to ensure that the opera has a long, steady source of revenue from a growing rather than shrinking consumer base. Lowering the demographic age of the donors and also measuring the extent to which attendees at specific types of fundraisers become regular patrons is also required.

Build reputation on the national and international opera scene

Ultimately, an opera company's objective is to produce…

..Ain't no feeling like being free, I'm like an eagle set free, And finally I'm looking out for me" (Free pp). The chorus demonstrates how this woman feels about getting out of her relationship. She's expressing how freedom feels, how good it feels to finally stand up for oneself and move on in life. This woman has decided to put the past behind her, including this relationship. She has reached her limit with being used and abused by her lover. In fact, one of the lines reads, "I'm tired of that happening," meaning she has heard his lies and excuses until she cannot bear to hear another word from his mouth (Free pp).
Although there is anger throughout the song, it is a liberating anger, the type of anger necessary to move out of an abusive relationship. Anger can be the fuel needed to find the energy for important changes and…

Christopher Marlowe's short lyric "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" has exercised an influence on English verse which hardly seems indicated by the limpid faux-naif quality of the poem itself, written in simple four-line stanzas, each composed of a pair of simple rhymed octosyllablic couplets. R.S. Forsythe traces a whole host of imitations in English and in Continental verse of Marlowe's pastoral song, and concludes that
"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" has exercised, for over three hundred and thirty years, upon English poetry an influence, direct or indirect, which is equalled by that of few poems; second, that, probably because of the popularity of these verses, a literary device was created -- the invitation to love -- which, in one form or another, adapted in this way or that, has persisted down into our own days. (742)

But I would propose that an examination of the metaphor and simile in this…

John Keats: A lyric Poem compared to a narrative one
The poetry of John Keats:

Common themes in "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

Both poems by John Keats "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn" have a common theme: the transient nature of human desire. The poems reflect common Romantic preoccupations: exotic settings, art, and mysterious powers that serve to underline the limited nature of human love and desire. The ballad romance "La Belle Dame sans Merci" tells the story of a knight who is miserable after being abandoned by his lover, the fabled woman of the title. The "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is written in the poet's own voice as he gazes on the work of classical Greek sculpture. The poet compares how reality is always changing and imperfect while art is eternal, including the static, artistic portrayals of the two…

Billy Joel's Piano Man
One phrase that can sum up the success of Billy Joel's song, Piano Man, is "slice of life." The song give us a glimpse into the life of a struggling performer who has earned fame on a small scale playing the piano and singing at a bar in a small town. This song is timeless because it is a story about many characters making their way through life.

The music and lyrics of this song operate together to create a comfortable atmosphere. This atmosphere reflects the atmosphere of the small bar in which the story is taking place. Because most of the music in the song is the piano, the image of the piano player is constantly brought to our minds. From the very beginning of the song, we are drawn to listen to it because it is not intrusive. The song is not demanding that we listen…

Debussy repeats this flute melody throughout the piece at different paces against a variety of chords. hile the overall form of the piece is considered to ABA, it is important to note how one section of the piece blends beautifully with the next. The piece has a continuous flow and it is so subtle that listeners are not tempted at any point to beat time to any rhythms.
The typical feeling of weightlessness that is associated with Impressionistic music and the simple act of repetition are what make this piece a success. e should also consider that "Prelude de L'apres Midi d'un Faune" was composed with the stage in mind. The intention of the piece was to leave listeners with something profound to think about long after the sound of the music stopped. Debussy was successful in that the piece had an effect that reached farther than any other French…

Poetry and Music: Should Lyrics be Taught as Poetry?
One of the more interesting discussions in modern literature is whether song lyrics should be considered as poetry. Historically, there was not necessarily a distinction between songs and literature, as bards used music to help convey literary ideas, whether in the form of songs, spoken verse, or even stories that may have been set to music. However, modern society has differentiated song lyrics from poetry, and has done so in a manner that may be very dismissive of the meaning in song lyrics. Song lyrics are considered to be merely a part of popular culture, while poetry is considered an art form. However, the reality is that song lyrics can engage in the same in-depth level of storytelling and focus on the same issues as poetry. The poem "The Supremes" by Cornelius Eady discusses the topic of bullying in schools, and it…

Beyonce Lyrics
The author of this brief report has been asked to analyze the lyrics of the song Formation by Beyonce, the pop and &B artist who is widely known to the American public. ather than just summarize and print out the lyrics, the author of this report will instead analyze and assess what they lyrics are saying. The contexts, backstory and societal implications behind what is being said will be analyzed along the way. The song will be broken down into snippets based on each point being made and what is being said. The size of the snippets will vary a little bit but will all be fairly self-contained on their own so that a full point can be made for each portion. While many songs out there in the pop music sphere are vague and leave some interpretation to the listeners, much of what is being said in Beyonce's…

Citizen -- A Review & Analysis
It is without question that race relations and the treatment of minorities, black people in particular, has progressed and advanced significantly over the existence of the United States. Slavery was abolished nearly a century into the existence of the United States in 1865 and the Jim Crow era came to a halt in light of events like Brown v. Board of Education in the 1950's and the Civil Rights laws being passed in the 1960's. However, even though many to most of the abhorrent and soulless behaviors that typified the years before those events came to pass are now outlawed, what has instead emerged is a rather underground yet not impossible to notice pattern of black people being treated in a way that is clearly different, more negative and more violent than is the case with whites or even other classes of minorities. hile some…

proud of it. look at this as the attribute that spearheads my personality. Allow me to indulge myself
The word "crazy" can be defined in many different ways. One of the meanings that really talks to me is, "having an unusual, unexpected, or random quality." One might understand this better from World War . Each army had their own land which was not even contestable. Then, on the border facing the enemy, each side dug trenches to protect themselves against an oncoming attack. During the whole war they were fighting over a mile or two of no-man's land. Back and forth for 4 years straight.

This may seem a totally crazy, but if you really stopped and thought about it for a second, this is what life is all about: stepping out onto the battlefield and into the mud. f you want, you can live your life on what's given…

Ancient
The Egyptian love songs/poetry as part of the coursework are revealing and interesting, regarding Egyptian life, society, and conceptions of love, romance, and sex. These love poems, such as other poems from other eras and countries, are sensual and imaginative. The Egyptian love poems/songs show variation and intensity, though there are some themes that bind or connect them. The paper will identify patterns and themes in some of the selected poems as part of general analysis of Egyptian love songs/poetry.

Many of the poems describe the body and describe feelings about the body. In this way, many of the poems are similar in their vivid descriptions or depictions of the body of the person desired, and the person who is desiring. Such descriptions and details add intensity to the poems and they additionally actively engage the imaginations of the readers. On some occassions, the descriptions are about a body part or…

ordsworth
Poetry has existed as a popular art form for many years. The following discussion will focus on what poetry, poets, and the lyric mean to illiam ordsworth as related in his PREFACE to Lyrical Ballads. The research will also connect John Stuart Mills and Roman Jakobson's definitions of poetry to that of ordsworth.

Poetry Poets and Lyric according to ordsworth

illiam ordsworth was one of the preeminent poets of the 20th century. He possessed powerful beliefs about the meaning of poetry poets and lyric which he expressed through his Preface to Lyrical Ballads. The initial paragraphs of the preface acknowledge that the type of poetry presented in the book differs greatly from the type of poetry that the general public, at the time had become familiar with reading. For this reason ordsworth felt the need to explain the poetry. ordsworth then goes on to explain that authors of the past made a…

"When I was your Man" By Bruno Mars
Gifted Grammy award-winning singer, Bruno Mars, in his "When I Was Your Man," has largely utilized sad and regretful lyrics portraying longing for the woman who left him. However, does this really indicate he's now more sensible and mature, or is it simply wishful thinking? "When I was your Man" strikes straight at the hearts of people who lost a special person or loved someone deeply but did not realize it and failed to value them till it was too late. This song's lyrics depict a multitude of emotions such as remorse, discontent and miserableness expressed effectively through the singer's voice (Louis).

Same bed, but it feels just a little bit bigger now

The musician begins with the typical picture of a ruined relationship: an empty bed with a lone occupant, speaking of loneliness and sadness (Popdust).

Our song on the radio, but it don't sound…

Charles Ivey Song Lyrics
"Charlie Rutlage" by Charles Ives (1920), from Cowboy Songs and Other Ballads

The song "Charlie Rutlage" by composer Charles Ives was released in 1920 as part of Ives' collection Cowboy Songs and Other Ballads, and the work is distinctive of his signature style. The lyrics are mournful and melancholy, as Ives eulogizes "another good cowpuncher (who) has gone to meet his fate," telling the story of Charlie Rutlage, a hand on the XIT ranch who was killed after his horse fell and crushed him underneath. Ives sings the opening lines of the song with a celebratory bravado, lauding Rutlage by saying "Twill be hard to find another that's as liked as well as he" to suggest that the fallen cowboy was beloved by his friends and family. In my estimation, this passage is used by Ives to form an emotional connection between his listener and the titular…

The narrator is identifying both himself and the audience as people who would be better served by a world that disregards the notion of trespassing, and thus the ownership of land. The folk tradition allows Guthrie to insert this political identification and implicit critique smoothly, without breaking the rhetorical flow of the song.
Guthrie's critique only become more pointed, as the narrator describes seeing "his people" "by the relief office […] / as they stood hungry," which makes him ask "is this land made for you and me?" Guthrie contrasts the idealized world of the first few verses with the bleak reality of hunger and poverty in America after the Great Depression, and he uses the image of hungry people to vividly demonstrate the fact that American capitalism is not a system made for the majority of people living within it. Instead, it is based on a system of exploitation…

Song lyrics reflect the culture and social norms of their time period. Examining song lyrics from two different time periods can therefore reveal the ways these two generations differed in terms of messages about core subjects. Love is a universal theme in all song, making it an especially good subject for analysis. Songs about love will differ according to the definition of love, how love is expressed or shared between two people, and also gender roles in relationships. In 1975, one of the biggest-selling songs was by a band called Captain and Tennille. The song is called, "Love will Keep us Together." In 2010, there was a song called "Boyfriend" by Best Coast. Both of these songs are overtly about love. Although "Boyfriend" is about unrequited love, and "Love will Keep us Together" is about relationships, these two songs have similar lyrics about the meaning of love and about gender…

Courtly Lyrics
Western ideas about romantic love came in large part from the classical Greek and oman past. However, they were also filtered through the very different culture of the European Middle Ages. One can trace the concepts that dominated Western thinking until recently to the mid-12th Century. Before that time, European literature rarely mentions love, and women seldom figure prominently. After that time, within a decade or two, all transformed. Passionate love stories replaced epic combat tales, and women were praised to goddess status (Brians). Since courtly love was often a very complicated and confusing social interaction, in the 12th century, Andreas Capellanus, or Andreas the Chaplain as he was known, wrote the Art of Courtly Love, including the "rules of love." Below is one of the lyrics of the 14th century by songwriter Guillaume de Machaut. Capellanus' corresponding rules are written as well.

I want to stay faithful, guard your…

Music on Teens Actions
In the past 40 years all kinds of music has turned out to be more and more overt predominantly towards the negative side like sex, drugs, aggression and violence. Lately two of the genres which have caught great attention is hard rock music and rap music. In most of the cases, the lyrics of the music are made in such a way that they induce negativity in the developing minds of the teenagers. This negativity is reflected in their actions in the form of drug abuse, aggression, violence, sex and rebellious actions towards parents, family, family and society in general. This kind of negative music is a major concern these days because it poses mental and physical threat to the teens of today. Some of the other alarming effects of such music are pregnancy, STDs, accidents, killing and this has resulted to be the normal lifestyle…

social poblem of using and selling dugs is potayed in music. I'm inteested in studying this because music has at once been accused of gloifying dug cultue and also as being one of the few means of allowing uses to vent on the ealities of dug cultue. Clealy, the elationship between dugs and music is a complex one. This pape will seek to shed light on the motivations fo atists to incopoate dug cultue in thei songs and what they pesumably gain fom it, and what society pesumably gains fom it as well.
The fist song that this pape will examine when it comes to the teatment of dugs as subject matte fo songs is in the wok of 2 Pac in his famous song, "Changes." This song is so emakable in that it addesses a temendous amount of social injustice in that is still alive and well in the…

Tori Amos
In music, most artists will face a number of challenges. This is because there are struggles they will endure to become successful. At the same time, they have to be able to remain relevant and adapt with the music. This means creating a unique sound which can combine a number of elements together. In the case of Tori Amos, she was able to create a one of a kind genre that took the traditions of the singer -- songwriter from the 1970s and augmented them with an alternative -- punk sound. This created a new form of women entertainer, who wanted to use this as a way to highlight social messages in their songs. While at the same time, it is giving women a sense of empowerment in the way they carried themselves and performed.

As a result, there will be an examination of the influences of Tori Amos and…

Though formulaic language expressions have been in regular use, in popular media forms, for at least the majority of the twentieth century if not indeed for centuries longer, their recognition and study is recent development (Van Lancker-Sidtis & allon 2004). Some texts have even been found to be comprised of a quarter or of formulaic expressions, demonstrating at once a reliance on collective cultural interpretations and a marked lack of originality in popular media language use (Van Lancker-Sidtis & allon 2004). These phrases make for interpretations that are both more colloquially colored and less symbolically imbued for their necessarily repetitive nature (thus their emergence as formulaic expressions) and their needed consistency in order to remain meaningful (Van Lancker-Sidtis & allon 2004).

Music and Language

The relationship between music and language is the subject of a great deal of debate, and ever researchers that support comparisons between the two uniquely human cognitive phenomena…

The whole concept of Christianity is that all people are sinners, but that God will forgive those sins and those sinners if they only ask for redemption. The lyrics say, "I lost my way but now I'm on my knees / if it's not too late won't you tell me please / You gotta place for me / a little grace for me" (Bentley). That lyric is not about the prodigal son, it is about all who have lost their way, which is every Christian. hat this song makes clear is that the idea of redemption as it has been portrayed in Christianity may have its beginnings in the parables told by Jesus, but those parables were broadened by the crucifixion and resurrection, and they changed them in the same way that they changed all of the other traditions of Judaism.
orks Cited

Bentley, Dierks. "Prodigal Son's Prayer." AZLyrics.com. N.p. 2011.…

Again, he uses dialect that his fans can relate to instead of being concerned about 'proper English'. This is very effective at making the words identifiable to his audience. The more people can relate to what you are saying, the more likely they are to take it to heart and actually do what you are asking them to do: "It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes." The most ironic thing about this song is the last few lines. I cannot help but wonder if 2 pac was having some kind of premonition when he wrote: "Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs/some punk that I roughed up way back/comin' back after all these years/rat-tat-tat-tat-tat that's the way it is."
That may be the way it is, but to 2 pac, that did not mean things had to stay that way. "Keep Ya…

Gender and Sex: Blurred Lines or Clear Boundaries?
One of the hottest songs of summer 2013 was a song by Robin Thicke called "Blurred Lines." The song gained popularity because of its catchy tune, and many people who found themselves dancing along to the song found themselves surprised by the lyrics when they actually listened to the song. In fact, the lyrics to the song were sufficiently suggestive that discussions about whether they were a symbol of rape culture became almost as popular as the song itself. The lyrics were not helped by the video for the song, which featured Thicke, two guest artists, and three scantily clad models in situations that could only be described as bizarre, leading to allegations that the video marginalized its female performers. Adding fuel to this fire was a performance by Thicke featuring Miley Cyrus, in which they seemingly referenced the video and Miley engaged…

Media Has Shaped the Ages through Music:
Music is a medium that has shaped the ages in relation to its significant role in social movements. Actually, music has acted as one of the various methods and vehicles through which social movements have existed and developed. The role and significance of music in shaping the ages is primarily attributed to the fact that it represents more than entertainment as it has spoken for generations and exemplified belief systems. Generally, music has had a tremendous relationship to and impact on social movements in every decade from the 1960s through 2000-2010. Music has been used as a means of exemplifying the mood of the decade in terms of high profile events or movements that took place in the respective decade.

Music through the Decades:

As previously mentioned, music has played a significant role through the ages by shaping social movements and exemplifying the mood of…

Social Analysis of the lues Music in the American Society
The blues, or blues music, has been considered an important and popular music genre in the history of American music. Its history goes back many years ago, during the black slavery period in the American history. lues music was said to have traced its roots in the cotton plantations commonly found in the South, and that blues music sang by the African-American slaves were their forms of protest against the slavery system that the white American society encourages. However, blues music did not proliferate and became prevalent among the black and white American society until after the Emancipation period, wherein most African-American slaves were now freed from bondage to slavery legally, and slavery was now abolished and prohibited to practice in the society, especially in the white American community.

The blues is defined as a "musical style created in response to…

Indeed, this is also clear in his occupation with both scientific, philosophical, and literary things. Being human in a well-rounded and complete way, despite the conflict he experiences regarding this, is the poet's triumph.
The conflict indicated in the poem is one that Lord Tennyson has experienced throughout his life, according to authors such as Andrew Lang. Indeed, as a boy he was continually investigating even early theories of evolution, long before it became socially fashionable to consider such issues. The poem is therefore the culmination of long years, not only of writing the poem itself, but also of deeply philosophical thought about scientific and biological issues.

Viewed in connection with the rest of the poem, Lyric CXX can then be seen as representing Tennyson's philosophical thought about death as representing hope within despair, loss, and sorrow. The loss of faith does not necessarily need to mean loss as a whole.…

The work of Chidester explores different types of death, and symbolizes three patterns describing the transcendence of death: ancestral, experiential, and cultural (12). Types of death, and the way death is imagined, can help human beings die in a meaningful way, give life ultimate meaning, and significance (Chidester: 12). The ancestral transcendence represents a type of biological death, meaning this form of transcendence provides a way for the individual to connect with a continuous biological chain of parents and offspring (Chidester: 12). This is significant as the family line is not broken by death; death provides an ongoing continuity of family. The psychological type of death is considered experiential transcendence, and represents "profound and often intense psychological experiences that embrace death in acceptance or ecstasy" (Chidester: 14). Accepting and embracing death signifies death as a psychologically peaceful experience. A third type of death is social, referred to as cultural transcendence,…

Free
How the Criminal Justice System is Dysfunctional according to Paul Butler's Let's Get Free

The American criminal justice system has had a long history of prejudice. From the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision that institutionalized the false concept of "separate but equal" to the Jim Crow laws that followed to the methods of "control" enacted by police in urban communities, criminal justice in the U.S. has seen lots of crime but little justice. Part of the reason for the inherent dysfunction in the way minorities have always been treated in America is that the country was founded on prejudiced WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) principles: the principle of "manifest destiny" was based on the supposedly "divine right" that WASPs had to "control" the New World and eradicate the "lesser" races (such as the Native Americans and the African-Americans). These prejudiced principles were absorbed into the criminal justice system through lawmakers (as…

I have had friends who turned on me because they wanted to hang out with people they thought were cooler, more popular, or who had better toys. Those friendships rarely lasted, though. In high school, the kids who had cars were more able to get friends, but those friends were only hanging out because of the car and not because they actually liked each other. I managed to remain friends with some people who I still consider close even though we go to different schools. The superficial aspects of our lives are meaningless and transitory. Money, looks, and other superficial traits fade, and what really counts is our character. I have seen people in my family bicker over money and other materialistic things that do not matter, when I really wish they would just love each other for who they are. This is why I find Timbaland's song to…

Gershwin/Someone to Watch
"Someone to Watch over Me" ("STWOM") was featured in a long-running musical called Oh Kay!, written by George and IA Gershwin, that made its world debut on Broadway's Imperial Theater. The date was November 8, 1926. The musical enjoyed great success, even including a Broadway revival in 1990. STWOM, the best-known song from the musical, was a hit three times the following year, starting with Oh Kay's star Gertrude Lawrence's recording, which was on the charts for eleven weeks. Gershwin himself released a version. George Olsen and His Orchestra had a hit with an uptempo version; interestingly, the Gershwin brothers originally intended the song to be an upbeat rhythm piece. George experimented with tempo one day and the brothers quickly realized it had more potential as a wistful, slower piece (McElrath.). Of course they were right. The purpose of this paper is to examine the score's refrain in…

Avril Lavigne
"Complicated"

"Complicated" is a song by Avril Lavigne from her 2002 debut album, Let Go. In interviews, Lavigne alleges that the lyrics refer to the duality of people that she has witnessed, including her ex-boyfriends and female friends. By taking a closer look into the lyrics, there are several themes that emerge. Among the themes that can be found in the lyrics of the song "Complicated" are duplicity and conformity, or a lack thereof. The themes of duplicity and conformity/non-conformity help to highlight the concepts of identity, self-presentation, and face.

In the song "Complicated," Lavigne is complacent with who she is and what she does. However, it soon becomes relevant that she finds herself at odds with a presumed significant other who has changed from the person that she knew, and possibly fell in love with, into a different person with different ideals. It is in the second stanza that…

Attraction & Love
The song that is one of my favorite love songs is "Unchained Melody"; Alex North wrote the music and Hy Zaret wrote the lyrics in 1955. Several artists recorded the song (including Al Hibbler, who had a #3 top 40 hit; Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, the Supremes, and many more). In 1965 the Righteous Brothers had a huge hit with that song, and it became even more famous when it was used in the 1990 film "Ghost."

The kind of love that is exhibited in this song that is closest to Robert Sternberg's eight types of love is "Romantic Love" because the song is all about how much the singer loves the person (in this case a woman), is crazily wildly passionately in love with her, is terribly lonely because he doesn't have her in his life -- and yet he does not have a commitment from her. And…

The "blueblack cold" of a winter morning suggests the touch of cold and the sight of blue frost in the darkness. The "cracked hands" of the father who labors for his living appeals to a sense of cold, harsh touch. The son can "hear the cold splintering" and feel the "banked fires blaze," a contrast of the cold sound of ice and the warm crackling fire, and the contrasting sensations of cold and warmth.
The contrast between the physical, particularly the tactile sense of warm and cold, intensifies the sense of thwarted love the father feels for the boy, but cannot really show, except in rising early to make a fire and polish the boy's good shoes.

Figures of speech

Synecdoche: (a single thing that stands for larger meaning) Lighting a fire becomes a synecdoche or stand-in for the man's entire relationship with his son.

Hyperbole: The suggestion "No one ever thanked him"…

Metallica "Blackened"
At first glance, a heavy metal band like Metallica may not be an obvious candidate to be promoting good-for-you, good-for-the-earth causes like reducing pollution and saving the Earth from destruction at the hands of lazy humans. And yet, hidden deep within the rock guitar and tough-guy exterior of the band lies a group of artists who are passionate about how humankind treats the Earth. Like many other musicians, the members of Metallica use their art to talk about what they believe in and to try to influence their fans to care about the projects they support. Some artists use their music to talk about politics, family, or moral issues, and some use it to talk about causes they support. The Metallica song Blackened, released in 1988, is one example of music meant to expose the band's thoughts on how humans could be close to destroying the earth, and to…

In this stanza, mainline and dragon are used as metaphors for his drug of preference, although these drugs can be seen as metaphors for the other addictive substances and behaviors that people can become dependent on regardless of if these substances are legal or illegal. The last two lines of this stanza insinuate that Nikki has come to an impasse and does not know what to next with his life, which is possibly why he turned to drugs. The last two lines state, "No regrets, you've got no goals/Nothing more to learn" (Queensryche). These concluding lines indicate that Nikki is waiting for some sort of direction, regardless of whether it is good or bad, simply to not be a slave to the drug.
The third stanza offers Nikki a solution for his dilemma and proposes that the doctor will give his life purpose, which ironically, is the price Nikki will…

Poetry in Third Eye Blind's Jumper and Sharon Olds' Summer Solstice New York
Songs and works of poetry are often the subject of the expression of some of humanities darker emotions. The act of suicide represents a culmination of such negative emotions to a point in which an individual wishes to take their own life. It is often the case that someone is temporarily flooded with such intense negative emotions that they consider suicide in a rash decision. While many of the artistic expressions deal with death, suffering, and suicidal thoughts, fewer seem to concentrate on more of a preventive side of such emotions. Two poems were chosen because each of them takes a relatively unique approach to suicidal people. The first poem was a song, Jumper by Third Eye Blind, is a song that represents a story told from the perspective of someone trying to talk down a suicidal…

BLUES Leadbelly told Alan Lomax, "It a man blues sing blues," statement -- a truth blues -- leads a number things worth thinking exploring. For thing, side Leadbelly's statement true: One blues hear blues understand .
Blues and the American experience

It is a very well-known fact that music is one of the oldest means of expression in human civilization. It represents the way through which some of the deepest feelings and emotions have been expressed along the history of mankind. Whether it is through music and instruments, such as symphonic music, or whether this music includes words and lyrics, all musical creations aim at sending a message about the world their creators lived in, their emotions, and their feelings related to that world, or its surrounding elements.

The Blues has provided music lovers and not only them a comprehensive image of different experiences of the American history particularly because this music…

Jamaican Music
It is never just about the music.

No matter how great the musician, music is always the expression of an entire culture, of a moment in history, of a particular place in time. The genius of a particular musician, the synergy of a particular group - these are both essential to the success or failure of a particular group. But that success or failure is never intrinsic to a single song, to a single album. Music that succeeds - both in its own time and later - does so because it has the ability to express something important about that moment in time. eggae has been able to provide just such an expression of the beliefs of a particular people at a moment in history for the last two years - and it has been able to do so because of its ability to change with larger political and cultural…

Mind, Baby
Contrary to popular belief, sex and sexuality has been present in popular music for at least the past 60 years. Since the age of "oldies" -- which in this discourse is defined as the "doo wop" period of the 1950's and the 1960's and which hearken to tunes such as "Blue Moon" and "Angel Baby" -- the lyrics of songs have included elements of sex. However, in much the same way that other forms of art -- particularly those with a pervasive appeal as disseminated through media such as film and television -- have modified their presentation to go from subtle implications to overt displays of a graphic nature, the tendency to portray sex in popular music has gone from what began as implicit references that required the upper reaches of the imagination to fully understand, to blatant references of a carnal nature that oftentimes are noticeably deficient…

Florence + the Machine -- "Kiss With a Fist"
Florence + The Machine's "Kiss With a Fist" is a ballad that describes the volatile relationship that the singer had with a former boyfriend. In the song, the singer contends that any sort of emotional response is better than none. Florence sings, "A kick in the teeth is good for some/A kiss with a fist is better than none." In the song, violence is not limited to one party, but rather is reciprocated by both people in the relationship. The song describes all the terrible things that the couple do to each other from hitting, kicking, slapping, and smashing plates over the head. Despite the violent tendencies of both parties, the singer contends that they can force their relationship to work. This idea is expressed through the lyric "break the lock if it don't fit."

The tone of the song's lyrics does not…

Gentle into That Good Night and This Is it: A Comparison
Dylan Thomas' poem Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night and the Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald song This Is It both deal with the mortality of man. Each is a plea to a dying father, Thomas' and Loggins', not to give up the good fight as they neared death. Both works are saying that even at the end of life one should choose to fight against the inevitability of death.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Thomas' poem is composed of six stanzas of three lines each except the sixth with four. The rhyme scheme is A, B, A with the last line alternating between Rage, rage against the dying of the light, and Do not go gentle into that good night. The last stanza ends with both refrains, thus the extra line and an A, B, A,…

Pearl Jam's "Do the Evolution" is a modern take on the evolution of mankind. ritten from a social perspective, the song critiques the conceit that humans are somehow "superior" because they are the most highly evolved, or complex organism on Earth. The complete lyrics for Do the Evolution are listed at the end of this essay.
Pearl Jam's frontman, Eddie Venter, has quickly become the musical voice of Generation X His lyrics are almost always insightful and provocative, and often address important social issues. Do the Evolution is no exception to the rule, as Venter delivers a topical and pointed commentary on current status of what is arguably the most highly evolved animal on the planet: human beings.

From a purely scientific perspective, the process of evolution is simply change over time. Darwin sought to explain the process of evolution by putting forward the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's highly…

" Instead of those key lines, a wailing voice suggests that prayers for love remain unfulfilled. The stress is on lines like "without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own," as the wailing replaces the rest of the chorus. Elvis's "Blue Moon" is truly blue: filled with sadness and unfulfilled longing.
To enhance the reinvented theme of "Blue Moon," the instrumentation is stark. Throughout the recording, only a bass and a drum accompany the sultry vocals. The effect is clearly and intentionally that of a cowboy song. The rhythm of both the bass and the drums convey a horse gently trotting, carrying its lone rider through the Wild West. Evoking cowboy movies and mystique is one way the arrangement sends a far different message than the one that ogers and Hart had intended. In Elvis's version, the male vocalist is totally, utterly alone. He is a lone…

The video's director explains that the intention was not to create racy content for its own sake, but rather that "the process was to express Lady Gaga's desire to reveal her heart and bear her soul" (Kreps). The provocative imagery thus serves to challenge the viewer over whether the video expresses bad taste or high art.
Equally important to lyrics are Gaga's overall image and the discussion she generates over her interests, including avant-garde fashion and gay rights. She is known for being scantily-clad; one magazine called her appearance "bizarre," stating that her style of dress is "archly futuristic…reveals a lot of skin but is never sexy" (Callahan and Stewart). The conflict inherent in her blatant sexuality also arises when one considers the discussion that her gender once generated, as "Is Lady Gaga a man?' 'was AskJeeves.com's thirdmost-asked question of 2009" (Juzwiak). Ever the provocateur, Lady Gaga addressed the question…

Blues music however did not cross racial lines, with the majority of famous blues musicians still residing in New Orleans and various other well-known black music entertainment venues of the South.
Gospel music has been an African-American church tradition with influences from traditional African music and especially prevalent during the slavery era. Later (most likely because of those particular ignominious associations and all they implied, especially in the South) gospel music was strongly discouraged within mainstream society and actively suppressed.

Similarly, blues music represented a blending of black musical traditions with a centuries-long history originating from the earliest days of American slavery. Sammy Davis Jr. And Nat King Cole, were and remain today among the best-known of early black entertainers within the (then) up-and-coming rock 'n roll genre of the 1940's. Each had a heavy influence upon Elvis himself.

Obviously, though, the blending of Southern musical traditions was not started by Elvis…

Article Analysis

The author presents three specific theories to explain Cockburn's success at being so versatile. First, he suggests that it is a function of the artist's "persona" but even the author acknowledges the hackneyed metaphor. Second, he suggests that Cockburn's lyrics lend themselves better to a dual appreciation. Third, he suggests that Cockburn's choice of contemporary rather than classical (i.e. biblical) themes and imagery are responsible. Those two explanations seem to make more sense than the author's first explanation. Moreover, it is largely the author's subjective opinion about how successfully other performers may have appealed to respective audiences in different genres. Ultimately, the article may do more to confirm that both beauty and artistic appreciation may be equally in the eye of the beholder than it does to establish a fundamental difference between Cockburn and some of his predecessors.

eference

Smucker, T. "You've Never Seen Everything," Commonwealth, Vol.…

he sunglasses attempts to replace not ony the singer's seat at his lover's side, but also his position in his life by asking about the scar. he fact that he is referred to as "some sunglasses" also alludes to the relative insecurity the singer suffers, not only as a result of the perceived coolness of the sunglasses, but also because of his own all too well-known shortcomings. He gave his lover the scar and he is "trying," and by implication not entirely succeeding, to take it back. In the same way she is "trying to forget" the scar. From both sides then, there are attempts to remedy what has gone awry in the relationship. However, starting with these shortcomings is deceptive, as the refrain and the repetition of metaphorical and symbolic meaning indicate the young singer's faith that what is left between them is stronger than sunglasses or scars.…

Fictional Talk Show Script for Speech Class
The mother of a British boy who committed suicide and left behind a printout of Eminem's lyrics gets to tell her side of the story during this fictional talk show for speech class.

My name is Mary Hurcombe, mother of David Hurcombe and my son is gone. While I cannot say I hate the American rapper, Eminem, because of his influence over my son, today I listen to all music with keener interest and I hope I can deliver a message to other parents. ather than analyzing lyrics to music, parents must take the time to listen to their children. It could be a matter of life and death.

Despite the articles and news to the contrary, I'd like to say that I do not believe the lyrics of Eminem's song "ock Bottom" inspired my son to jump in front of a train in London. However,…

Interpersonal Relationship
Most people have had relationships that began with promise but ended badly. This is certainly the case with myself, and in my case, I can think of one popular song that always reminds me of the optimistic beginning and disastrous end of a certain relationship. This song is "Billie Jean," a well-known and bestselling single by the late Michael Jackson from his 1983 album Thriller -- which still ranks among the best-selling albums of all time. Many people will remember the slow and ominous chord progression of the song's opening, or the memorable video which introduced America to the "moonwalk," Jackson's signature dance move. What is most interesting to me is the way in which the song follows Knapp's classic ten stages of relational development. This is apparent from the song's opening, where the singer and a young woman meet as strangers in a social situation, in the midst…

Billy Collins' poem is a lyric poem because mainly it expresses highly personal emotions and feelings. Many lyric poems involve musical themes or tones, and in fact in Shakespeare's era the word "lyric" meant that the poem was accompanied by a musical instrument (a lyre). But while Collins' poem doesn't give off a musical idea or theme (unless the sound of a fork scratching across a granite table is music), it does use metaphor and achieves a dramatic impact.
The metaphor has two people, presumably married and in a love partnership who have divorced. (It is known that although un-married couples who have been together for a long time and break up are also involved essentially in a "divorce" of their partnership.) The metaphor of "two spoons" shows two people locked together, snuggling would be a good word, in a warm bed. "Tined" means prongs on a fork -- or it…

3. Effects of sound -- The sound of the poem is evocative of action, words like BEHIND, JUMPED, SPIT, combining humor and active verbs.

4. Images -- The image makes the owl human, but part of nature; and an explanation for the natural world (rain) told in a way that children might think- cause and effect.

5. Emotions/Evocative, Alterative -- Teaches children that owls are wise, that nature is not meant to be captured; the poem is evocative and a journey.

6. Message -- a bit ecologic, owls part of nature, and not meant to be caught, but meant to be part of the world in which a child's imagination might inhabit.

Find and analyze TWO songs w/lyrics - these may be types or genre identified above, and/or holiday songs, hymns and spiritual songs, or patriotic. MAKE SURE THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT GENRE. How might you present these as poetry to children or teens?…

"Lady Gaga in part because she keeps us guessing about who she, as a woman, really is. She has been praised for using her music and videos to raise this question and to confound the usual exploitative answers provided by 'the media'… Gaga's gonzo wigs, her outrageous costumes, and her fondness for dousing herself in what looks like blood, are supposed to complicate what are otherwise conventionally sexualized performances" but this complication does not necessarily lead to a feminist liberation (Bauer 2010).
Still, Gaga has been embraced by a generation of women, some who shun and some who embrace the feminist label. "Lady Gaga idealizes this way of being in the world. But real young women, who, as has been well documented, are pressured to make themselves into boy toys at younger and younger ages, feel torn. They tell themselves a Gaga-esque story about what they're doing. hen they're on…

Parents Magazine (2008):
I am Toddler, Hear me Roar: Learning to Live With and Love Your Toddler"

The Terrible Twos: A Preview of the Teenage Years

Angry. Opinionated. Possessing a unique will and capabilities. Ready to explore the world, regardless of whether his or her parents think he or she is ready to do so. Although this description may seem to fit the profile of the typical adolescent, it is also a fair description of toddlers as well. Toddlerhood is the first major stage of childhood development when children are learning how to test their limits and stretch and grow as people by taking risks. As any parent knows, every toddler's favorite word is a decided 'no,' usually uttered in a very loud and declarative tone! Parents are often frustrated during this period of their child's development, as they strike a balance between encouraging the toddler's independence while still striving to educate…

He has won numerous other awards, including the Golden Globe Award and the Grammy Award (Ibid).
Unfortunately for Horner, this success has also been a source of huge controversy. He has been criticized for ofter transposing hooks, orchestral motifs, or even larger passages from other musical scores of his own or more controversially from other composers and from other major motion pictures. These allegations are the main points of ferocious debate between supporters and detractors of Horner. hatever the case, one must admit that the raw power of the music has one going all the way in their matching up their attention and their emotion immediately with film characters who have become cultural and cinematic icons in an unforgiving world ("Filmtracks").

Conclusion

To sum up, Celine Dion in My Heart ill Go On has been rated as one of the best soundtracks ever made. It is the opinion of this author that…

This is perhaps most notable in the punctuating words of the witch. "One midnight gone!" cries the witch at the mid-point of the first act, then sings "It's the last midnight," before she leaves the play. The return to the words and themes of the woods is the only constant of the play. This is because the play is about journeys, not about coming to some final moral conclusion. The woods, unlike the safety of the home, is unpredictable -- not even the witch knows that the spell she weaves to regain her beauty will deprive her of her magic, or that the golden floss first provided by the baker will come from her own beloved, adopted child Rapunzel.
Interestingly enough, Rapunzel is the one character who never says 'Into the Woods,' and when other characters provide often humorous reflections on what they have learned in the woods, such as…

This becomes the motivation for achieving the kind of success that will allow them to look good to others. Again though, this is an empty success because regardless of how the person looks to others, they still feel no worth within themselves.
The third and final verse expands on this message and suggests that money is no answer. As est states, "e buy our way out of jail, but we can't buy freedom." This reference to freedom relates to being free to live according to yourself and your own needs, rather than a need to prove yourself to others. This is also emphasized in lines four to six of the verse: "e'll buy a lot of clothes when we don't really need em / Things we buy to cover up what's inside / Cause they make us hate ourself and love they wealth." These lines show that the desire for…