A Cluster Criticism Analysis : Where Is The Love, By The Black Eye Peas

Since the beginning of human existence love has earned a meaning of pure bliss and wild passion between two people that cannot be broken. Through out time the meaning of love has had its slight shifts but for the most part, maintains a positive value. In the poem “Love Should Grow Up Like a Wild Iris in the Fields,” the author, Susan Griffin expresses that this long lost concept of love is often concealed by the madness of everyday life and reality. In the poem, Griffin uses many literary elements to help convey the importance of true love. The usage of imagery, symbolism, and other literary techniques really help communicate Griffins’ meaning

This essay will analyse the piece What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye, based on it’s melodic, harmonic and rhythmic content. It will also consider the form, structure, instrumentation and use of dynamics in the piece, while providing a contextualisation of the piece to convey where it sits in a broader context, historically, socially and politically. In addition, how it relates to its genre, what influenced the piece and what has the piece influenced will be explored. The creative processes involved in the recording and production of the piece will also be examined.

“We Found Love” is a popular song produced by Calvin Harris and features singer Rihanna. “We Found Love” reached the number one spot in the top charts in multiple countries in 2012 and the music video became popular very quickly after being filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The music video features a young couple living in an impoverished council estate in West Belfast. Both characters portrayed in the music video are in their twenties and of mixed race, one parent being black and the other being Caucasian. Their relationship is distinguished by domestic violence as the couple is seen yelling, pushing and hurting one another, along with stealing from convenience stores, gambling and abusing drugs and alcohol together.

Language and imagery plays a dramatic role in portraying relationships and feelings/thoughts of the persona. Whilst in ‘Burning Sappho,’ the mother’s attitude towards tasks is portrayed as emotionless (“the child is fed, the dishes are washed, the clothes are ironed and aired,”), language is utilised within ‘Suburban Sonnet’ to construct the mother’s mental state and situation as dire. “Zest and Love drain out with soapy water.” The use of two personal, passionate adjectives and the depiction of them being physically overcome by soapy water directly link the mother’s loss of feelings and fiery emotion to the household chores and duties. For example, she “scours crusted milk,” as a part of her role as mother and housewife as the reader is positioned to reject this requirement as a result of the huge impact to her quality of life (“Veins ache”). The literal image of a dead mouse symbolises the mother’s situation as the ‘soft corpse’ directly represents the mother, that is, emotionally dead as a result of the entrapment by society. The reader is positioned to fully

How is a human suppose to love? Love is just a statement, a word, a word is just a sound. When you really love something, in loves you back in whatever way it has to love. But what if that love isn't good enough? Doesn’t meet your standards? "‘What I mean is, I love winter, and when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love.’ I didn't think that this was true, […] but it was like every other thought and belief of Finny's: it should have been true. So I didn't argue” (Knowles 111).  That is just life, love is something that is always there and needs to be accepted in anyway it can.

John Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemums” features many themes: themes of gender suppression, love, passion, and betrayal. This short story revolves around the character Elisa Allen who has a strong love and a great passion for her flowers, for her beloved chrysanthemums. However, when a mysterious man arrives towards the end of the text Elisa’s love and passion for the chrysanthemums weakens and she feels betrayed by one of the things she loves most. Steinbeck uses the unlikely encounter between the Tinker and Elisa, as well as, the encounter between Elisa and her husband as a way to express the theme of love and betrayal.

It is often taught that to be persuasive, one must be clear and logical. In “The Wheelchair Butterfly,” James Tate takes a completely different approach; instead, he utilizes chaos to further his meaning and connect with a specific readership. Largely, it is Tate’s structure that reflects this chaos, and the meticulous arrangement of “The Wheelchair Butterfly” signifies that its setting and occurrences portray something more sinister than a bizarre and moderately grotesque town. Tate’s target readers for this elaborate, empathetically chaotic poem must be educated enough to be able to parse through his imagery, open to self-examination, and part of a society in a time of elevated social and political conflict. Thus, Tate gesticulates towards the hidden, systematic corruption common of societies with elevated social conflicts in a way that connects with the conflicted feelings his specific readership might feel towards this corruption in their own lives using elements of structure such as surreal imagery, enjambment, and simile. Using these elements, Tate attempts to relate to his readers by distracting them, creating a confusion versus clarity disparity, and transforming the nature of their concerns to make them softer and more acceptable. Because Tate’s target readers will attempt to decipher the poem’s hectic contents, these factors give readers an opportunity to examine themselves along with the poem. This highly empathetic and unconventional approach, similarly seen in Frank O’Hara’s “A Step Away From Them,” has its successes as well as its downfalls, mostly in terms of its range of readership. Though poems more explicit about their intentions, such as Lucille Clifton’s “[i am accused of tending to the past],” may be more accessible to a greater number of readers, some level of empathy is lost in their candor. The key difference between Tate and O’Hara’s poems versus Clifton’s poem, then, is a matter of being understood by a wide range of readers versus being compelling to a small group of readers. ?

Through the use of poetic devices such as repetition or alliteration, the author originally describes what love is not capable of providing and defines love as unnecessary but by the end of the poem, the author reveals that love has some value.

It’s funny how most of the book's profound words about love don't include the word "love" at all.

This novel takes place primarily in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, during the period of the 1980s to the 2000s. Renee and Rob both met there in a bar named the ‘Eastern Standard’ both at the age of twenty-three. He initially planned to keep his relationship to Charlottesville strictly one of host and guest. Both he and Renee didn’t really favor Charlottesville. Then life had another plan for Rob and it was to fall in love. The setting was also a crucial part in the story because it was a music thriving environment at the time and in Charlottesville. Also, it shows that it greatly influenced the connection that Renee and Rob made with each other. The setting

In my opinion, Kendrick Lamar, an award-winning rapper and songwriter, has one of the best abilities to describe his distressed and abused lifestyle in Compton, California. He is not your original cliché artist who does not speak about anything meaningful. Kendrick, also known as K. Dot, is one of the most well known and most respected rappers in this era. Not only does he speak about his gloomy past, but he also speaks about his fortunate future. His ability to give detailed representations of his struggles and his story telling allows me to, metaphorically, enter the mind of Kendrick Lamar.

to music critics Jackson’s album Thriller seemed to be inspired by “a mixture of several genres

The poem, “For That He Looked Not upon Her” by George Gascoigne exemplifies how the speaker suffered from love, something that many people believe one should feel positive about. The title delivers a despairing tone by allowing the audience to believe that the speaker can no longer look the woman he loved in the eye. Conflicting with the despairing tone, the speaker develops a complex attitude with the use of structure, metaphors, diction, and desire.

Consequently, this picturesque poetic device helped communicate the theme of lost love by helping the reader associate the personas’ thoughts and beliefs with their own.

The song “Where Is The Love” by the Black Eyed Peas is a very heartfelt prayer for the healing and suffering in the world and society that we live in. I feel like the song is about exactly what the title is asking. Where is the love? Sometimes we have to stop, look around us and think about the relationships we have with other people. Are our relationships built on foundations of true love, compassion and kindness? Although the songs was originally released in 2003, most of the issues the song focuses on are still relevant today, in 2017. Which really makes me wonder, where IS the love? Surely after 14 years, things would have changed. Hate and war have existed since the beginning of humanity. Crime is an enormous part of our society, in the past and in the present. Imagine a world that is crime free, the perfect utopia. A world where everyone accepts their neighbour for the person they truly are, without racism, without judgement, without oppression. “Where is the love?” recognizes chaos in a broken world, intoxicated with violence and hate.