Poetic Analysis Of The Song 'Graceland' By Paul Simon

Music is more than just lyrics, it is seen as a way to express feelings. A simple song can be a combination of deeper meanings. This is seen in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” when Sonny finally finds a way to express himself and his struggles of life. Sonny faces many struggles while living in Harlem such as poverty, being African American, and being confined in a community that is known for being the lower part of life. Within his struggles Sonny finds a love for music. This comes in handy when his relationship with his brother is` struggling. Music gives Sonny an opportunity to reconnect with his brother since he did not understand what he was going through and express his struggles. Although Sonny has many struggles throughout life, He’s

My song utilizes the poetic devices of simile, rhyming, imagery, and repetition like that of “Mrs. Potato Head” by Melanie Martinez. Unlike the other poetic devices, only one simile can be seen, and that’s in lines 8-9. Rhyming, on the other hand, runs rampant throughout the entire piece, only leaving a few small gaps in between. While not as frequently placed, imagery can be seen in lines 2, 11, 14-15, 16-18, 20-21, and 27. Each one of these lines gives you an insight into the troublesome life of the song’s namesake, Our Guardian Angel, whose unfortunate circumstances are purposefully downplayed like that of Martinez’s character, Mrs. Potato Head. In other words, Our Guardian Angel and Mrs. Potato Head are struggling to endure the ignorance

Scott Joplin was a composer and pianist of ragtime who was born in the late 1860s near the border of Texas. He learned to play the piano as a young adult and started to travel with his amazing talent while he was young. He is known as the king of ragtime during his generation. He is famous for writing 44 ragtime pieces during his lifetime. He wrote one ballet and two operas as well, and one of his pieces called “Maple Leaf Rag”, eventually was one of the most well-known ragtime pieces of the time. Joplin moved to Missouri to teach piano. Julius Weiss tutored Scott Joplin when he was a young boy. Joplin began to be introduced to classical and folk music from her. He taught several people like Arthur Marshall and Brun Campell to compose ragtime music there. He eventually died later in his life in the city of New York in 1917 at the age of 49.

In “America the beautiful” the author’s use of diction creates an uplifting spiritual tone in the poem.The author uses the same words “oh beautiful for…”focusing not on America's flaws but on the beauty. For instance the start of stanza 4 she writes “o beautiful 4 heroes proved in liberty strife who more than self her country loved and marymor than life”.She apads for the people who believe in freedom of america by sacrificing their lives for their

Released in 1971 and produced by Reprise records, river is an intensely emotional contemporary folk song about heartbreak. Written solely by Joni Mitchell for her album ‘Blue’ the song is reminiscent of Christmas time although lyrically it has little relationship to Christmas. (Hopper, 2012)

Many people take a stance and attempt to spread the word on the social injustices, such as slavery, that affect an abundance of people all around the world. These people, who want to see a change in the lives of several innocent people, use rhetoric techniques to influence the opinions of others in order to get the desired effect they want, which is to develop awareness related to the topic they are discussing. One effective rhetoric skill is ethos, the reliability of a source. In the movie Amazing Grace, William Wilberforce has a petition with signatures of people against the slave trade. Lord Charles Fox, who was in favor of slavery, switches sides and signs the petition in front of the Parliament.

Popular singer Elton John once said; “music has healing power; it has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours”, and for most, music is the portal to an out of body experience. African American lyricists especially have been found to use the art of music to escape the real world, commencing from the slavery era and onward. The blues song titled The Tracks of My Tears does just that; expresses the ability to remove your soul from a treacherous reality. Similarly, the lyrics from popular modern songs, written by black artists, speak volumes about what is presently going on in the country, parallel to the way African American slavery songs did. Music written at an earlier period have been found to correlate to music of the past through providing strong emotion toward present day commentary.

Not only is music a great form of entertainment, but it also can portray a meaningful message. In the song, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”, the artist Buffy-Sainte Marie does just that. After further analysis, one can understand what the song is about and its significance. This, among with many other aspects of the song, can help one truly comprehend what she is attempting to get across to the audience.

In these songs, one can unearth the heart’s deepest desires—desires that are so basic, so undeniably human, that they cannot help but underscore the dehumanizing condition of slavery.

A common theme among many scholars is modern poetry lacks poetic merit. The modern version of poetry is more often than not, found as music and more specifically as lyrics opposed to stanzas. “Traditional” poetry is known for its poetic merit; however, modern poetry, music, also has elements that can be found in traditional poetry. Poetic merit usually refers to the use of numerous poetic elements: figurative language, imagery, symbolism, allusions, etc. Though scholars may regard music as lacking in poetic merit, the song “Glory” by John Legend and Common proves otherwise through its use of symbolism, alliteration, and allusions to put forth its emotional lyrics that depict the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement.

“no churches in the wild” is a song made by Jay-z with Kanye west featuring in It, right from the start of the song you know that something is not right, it is not a usual hip-hop song, the more you listen to it you can pick more and more out of it for example;

While reading Song of Songs in the bible the first aspect that stood out to me the most was the layout of the writings. First I noticed how it was in poetic form. The reading flowed really nicely and the comparisons of human to nature helped me to create a mental image in my mind while reading. The common themes throughout this book were love and searching for love (Nowell, Poetic artistry). There are about twenty different poems through the book, each with a different title. These titles give a good indication of what the poem is going to be about which helps you follow the deep and meaningful words to get a better understanding of the chapter. Another aspect that stood out to me was the letters ‘W', ‘M' and ‘D', listed on the left margins of the chapters. At first, I was really confused as to what those letters stood for. By reading the commentary by Irene Nowell I was able to understand the meaning of those letters. They stand for the different voices that speak throughout the book, ‘W' stands for the women, ‘M' stands for the man and ‘D' stands for the daughters of Jerusalem (Nowell, Genre, and Structure). This narrative, helps the reading flow smoother because you are able to figure out the point of view of the story.

Grace, the only album released by artist Jeff Buckley, due to his untimely death, contained a number of his original songs as well as some covers. This album released in 1994, sold “only modestly but was warmly received by critics” (Simon and Schuster, 2001), and gained Buckley immense respect as an artist. His song “Lover, you should’ve come over” was evidence that Buckley was a talented artist who was not only an excellent performer but an excellent songwriter who could craft melodies and words as well. ‘“Lover” is essentially a soul ballad” (Beviglia, 2014), with moments of intensity and moments of release as well. Through analyzing this song one may begin to explore the song’s virtual experience also known as the “story, or narrative of a musical work” that is “influenced by the artist’ perspective” (Sellnow, 2007), as well as the virtual time, and understand the overall message and congruency or incongruences of the song. “Lover” by Jeff Buckley is a song with an interesting message due to its hopeful lyrics and soulful tone and instrumentation, which create a congruent depiction of the message.

I really liked what you thought about Scott Joplin’s song “The Entertainer.” I agree with you that his upbeat and fun music probably helped lift other people’s spirits in those oppressive times. I researched more about Scott Joplin. When white critics belittled his work, he responded by publishing ragtime piano exercises for students and the genre those critics had disapproved of only grew.

Amazing Grace commonly refers to the song written by John Newton published in 1779; however, it’s hidden meaning is not as commonly known. It talks about John Newton’s person experiences, towards Slave Trade. He became a servant of a slave trader, was later saved and became a captain of slave ship. Knowing how it felt not to own yourself, he left his captaincy and looked to God for forgiveness, as, selling men was inhuman. This song is referred to throughout the movie Amazing Grace which captures the process of abolishment of the slave trade and shows William Wilberforce single handing demolishing it. However, Amazing Grace (2006) is not a reliable or representative historical source, which can be established by examining the depiction of the key characters and events such as the abolishment of the slave trade.