The 1969 Zager and Evans’ song “In the Year 2525” bring to mind an apocalyptic warning for the future of humanity. On the first listen, it seemed unsettling and random to me, but the melody stayed with me. After listening to it carefully several more times, I have developed an interpretation and appreciation of this bleak song. To begin, as the song progresses through each of the nine stanzas, it describes a year and dystopic view of innovation, time, and ultimately revelations. Man’s actions in the song have placed traditional morals, religion, the Earth, and their own survival at risk. The base line and percussion drives a dramatic tempo that alludes to the rapidly ticking of a clock. The final stanza of the song is unlike the rest. It offers
The next four lines address death with symbolism and personification to establish the idea of not fearing the unknown future. In line 5, the voice talks about the life cycle
Together, the beginning bridge and the intro, really set the scene for the rest of the song. The music in this section starts off with a smooth piano accompanied by other classical string instruments. The words in this section are sung soft and smooth to match the music. The lyrics themselves are in the perspective of someone who has recently died who spent his life listening to other people in his life constantly telling him to “live it up”. However, he was still met with death, as well as the life after death. He was met with a post-mortem life that is hell because he was more obsessed with comfort than with Jesus Christ.
Then it slowly goes to each step and phase of life and states how life is going to end. The poetic elements that have been used are also simple and clear that can be easily grasped. Therefore, it really helped me to imagine the whole poem, and interpret it
In the first stanza, the speaker refers to the future opportunities as dark trees and hopes that they are stretched away unto the edge of doom. This meaning the possibilities will be endless. The imagery used in the first stanza is very dark, but the meanings are reassuring. In the second stanza, the speaker explains how the possibilities will help them find themselves and who they truly are, while being fearless. In the second stanza, the speaker also expresses that growing up will be a lifelong journey and it does not happen overnight. The speaker also states that they will
is a famous phrase and is used in the second stanza to mark a change
The imagery used to describe the fragility of nature in this line further intensifies the contrast between the chaotic and the peaceful, implying the effect which a global superpower can have on the reserved traditions of a smaller, sub-culture. In the sixth stanza, this imagery is continued through the personification of “mother” earth, saying that the act of extracting Uranium involved “breaking the doors of her sanctum, tearing the secret out of her flesh.” The labelling of “Mother Earth” is a somewhat primitive term, therefore reinforcing the innocence of “Ancients”, proving that they, unlike the forces of war and globalisation, didn’t “gouge lumps of that power” which lay beneath their feet, but instead “knew the folly of wresting, wrestling, ravaging from the earth.” The alliteration of the ‘r’ draws attention yet again to the contrasts which these societies intentions hold, succinctly concluding their juxtaposed
At this moment, Rob MacGregor is kneeling on the ground all dirty, bruised, with a look of defeat as he is sentenced to death. His adrenaline kicks into gear, as he breaks away and falls into the river. As MacGregor is drifting away with the stream, he is being shot at and chased. The look on his face is no longer defeat, but a look as if he can conquer it all. The song choice is supposed to amplify the amount of energy MacGregor currently has. It is supposed to keep one on the edge of their seat, waiting to see if MacGregor successfully escapes. This song has such an unsettling feeling of suspense that will help depict the courageous act MacGregor is on as he drifts down the river from Montrose’s men.
because it represents the accelerating connections throughout the world that was occurring throughout this time period. It is clear that the main theme for the time period from 600-1400 C.E. is accelerating connections because each chapter in the unit is based on how the societies that existed then interacted through religion, conquering, and trading with each other. This time period continues to influence us today because it established meaningful connections between diverse people and gave rise to a globalization that characterizes the modern world. This time period represented an increase and innovation in trade, growth, and spread of major world religions, new political structures, and the dark ages. This song elicits a very somber feeling that can be said to accompany this period of world history when the world was full of conflict much as it is today- so much so that a lot of it is known as the Dark Ages. The first lines of this song, “I fell into the ocean/ When you became my wife/I risked it all against the sea/ To have a better life’’ show the peril the cultures of the world took in order to further each of their society's power. The flowering of Islamic culture, founded by Muhammad, from Arabia around the world can be seen as one of these efforts- as the Islamic Caliphates expanded their reign in the Afro-Eurasian world.
There are several poetic elements within the context of this song. Most notably is the most common poetic element
Refreshed from this interjection, I am inspired and, frankly, am not in the mood for the dull, repetitive songs I know by heart. So, I begin to write my own song that fittingly matches the thunderous atmosphere around me. Pure creativity springs from my fingers as I express note after note, lyric after lyric. It is not a perfect song in any way; it is rough and underdeveloped, it is jumbled and confusing and without direction or meaning, and it is so easy to forget that even I have forgotten the tune and most of the words, but it is
By the third stanza the calm and reminiscent tone seems to shift to the author now answering her calling, in what she will do with her life. The next to
The entire poem has a smooth rhythm, which makes it appealing and easy for the reader to understand. For the first 8 lines, the speaker describes to the readers how the world is too much with us and spends the rest of the poem discussing how he wants change to pre-Christian (pagan) beliefs where he can respond to nature. The writer starts the poem by repeating the title “The world is too much with us” (ll. 1). This used to reinforce the point and explain that the world is slowly drifting from being completely natural to adapting to change made by humans. The first four lines of the stanza “The world is too…a sordid boon!”
Next, "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" creates an illusion of a mind becoming unstable by describing the speaker's irrationality. The speaker's irrationality is represented in the third stanza and fourth stanza. It is evident that the speaker is beginning to hear voices, which is why she states "And then I heard them lift a Box" (line 9). The voices that the speaker is hearing are beginning to take over her mind as she expresses "And creak across my Soul," which gives the reader's the illusion of the speaker losing all control. All the problems that the speaker is experiencing as a result of her mental stability are beginning to take their toll, which is evident through the statement "Boots of Lead, again, Then Space - began to toll" (line 11-12). The speaker has now fallen into a state of irrationality, and her mind has suffered enough, and consequently thoughts of suicide plague the speaker. The statement "As all the Heavens were a Bell" represents the speaker's feelings that her mind has a chance of being at peace again if she ends her existing insanity, and she must therefore act upon her suicide thoughts (line 13). The speaker is trying to convince herself to follow through with her thoughts of suicide, as clearly indicated in her statement "Wrecked, solitary, here-." The speaker
First of all, the parallelism shown from the lyrics can be divided into 3 parts which are repetition, phonological and syntactic/grammatical aspects. The repetition that can be seen is in the verse; “It’s a war outside // It’s a war outside // It’s a war outside” which is repeated for 3 times. Next, for the phonological aspect, there are many rhythmic verses from the song which are; 1) Father who art in heaven // Is this how you saw it when you made your creation? [n]. 2) And the sky turns white // And the days turn night [t] 3) Or maybe we’ll find paradise in the sky // When we die [ai]. For the assonance; 1) This is what you’ve started, it’s your creation [ə] 2) White, night, outside [ai]. In term of alliteration and consonance, it is in the verse “Smoke-filled skies [s] and ____ respectively. There are many verses that contain the syntactic/grammar parallelism which are; 1) Is this how you saw it when you made
The narrator begins to accept the mystery behind the song’s blissfulness and acquires the tune as the driving spirit of all the external realities in his presence. This realization of the song’s ineffability makes “the sky acutest at its vanishing” (35) and “measured to the hour at its solitude”. For Stevens, these acts of interpretation are