James Taylor Fire And Rain

618 Words2 Pages

When James Taylor’s album, Sweet Baby James, was introduced in February of 1970, the country was still in a daze from the Vietnam War, the Kennedy and King assassinations, and the Manson murders. The country needed a something thoughtful and serene to make it through the foreign and domestic chaos; James Taylor’s album was just that. The lyrics in Sweet Baby James and specifically “Fire and Rain” turned out to be some of the most relatable lyrics of the time period. People could listen to a song and automatically hear their own situations in it. Not surprisingly, Sweet Baby James and “Fire and Rain” ended up being Top Five hits by the end of 1970 (Browne). Knowing background information is pertinent in fueling the meaning of the song. When analyzing James Taylor’s song “Fire and Rain,” one can see that it contains superb examples of allusion, juxtaposition, and symbolism that are prevalent in poetry. The poetic devises used in this song amplify the song’s overall theme of grief. …show more content…

An allusion to the abominable events is evident in the following lines, “Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone/Susanne the plans they made put an end to you,” (L 1, 2). These lyrics provide the image of death; therefore, connecting the listener to the allusion presented. In the seventies, death was all around America in many different forms: the death of peace, the death of people and the death of the economy. The “deaths” reached everyone in the nation, whether it be from the television, newspaper, radio, or actual experience, causing a widespread sense of

Show More
Related

  • Kevin Young’s For the Confederate Dead

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    As I gazed across the book isles and leaned over carefully to pick one up out of the old dusty vaults of the library, a familiar object caught my eye in the poetry section. A picture in time stood still on this book, of two African American men both holding guitars. I immediately was attracted to this book of poems. For the Confederate Dead, by Kevin Young, is what it read on the front in cursive lettering. I turned to the back of the book and “Jazz“, and “blues” popped out of the paper back book and into my brain. Sometimes you can judge a book by it’s cover, I thought. Kevin Young’s For the Confederate Dead is a book of poems influenced by blues and jazz in the deep rural parts of the south.

    Read More

  • History of Desire vs. Hanging Fire

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Do you remember your first love? How you felt at night, unable to sleep because of the lopsided ratio of infatuation-induced adrenaline to blood? The feeling of the pedal shuddering against the bottom of your toes as you start your clunky first car? The years between thirteen and nineteen are filled with acne, first loves, tough crowds at school, and first tastes of freedom. The concerns and passions during this period of life are well expressed through tones, perspectives, and a myriad of literary devices in Tony Hoagland’s “History of Desire” and Audre Lorde’s “Hanging Fire”. Although these two poems share the same themes, Hoagland’s reflects back upon this time, while Lorde’s is still enmeshed in these adolescent struggles.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Human Nature In Barn Burning By William Faulkner

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poetry is defined by William Faulkner as “some moving, passionate moment of the human condition distilled to its absolute essence” (Ford, 527). Many literary pieces look at human nature and how human’s reaction during those situations, so while the environment may change the human part does not. When we really look underneath a stories surroundings and exam the underlying human pieces they are the same in literary pieces written years ago compared to human kind today. The “Narrative Legerdemain: Evoking Sarty’s Future in ‘Barn Burning’” discusses the human internal battle of good versus evil (Ford, 528). “Tennessee Williams and the Two Streetcars” by Daniel Thomieres describes the human battle of wanting to live life to its fullest, but also staying within the limitations set by society. “’Don’t Turn Back’: Langston Hughes, Barack Obama, and Martin Luther King, Jr.” by W. Jason Miller examines how Langston Hughes poem can be used to motivate people to keep “climbing.”

    Read More

  • Is Taking a Life Ever Justified? Reflection in John Steinbeck´s of Mice and Men

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Steinbeck, in his novel, Of Mice and Men, implies that in times of dire need, taking the life of one whom is suffering is the only viable option. He develops his claim by illustrating Lennie’s mental illness throughout the various conflicts faced by the two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, while on their journey to reach the, “American Dream.” Steinbeck’s purpose is to rationalize the immortality of killing a loved one in order to sustain internal peace. The novel is intended for an audience that wishes to recognize the difficulties faced by those who lived during the time of the Great Depression.

    Read More

  • Biography of Woody Guthrie

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    Woody Guthrie was an extremely talented and relatable musician who was able to bring joy to people’s lives through his songs. Becoming a person who can relate to people usually doesn’t just happen. Guthrie’s childhood was fairly comfortable until some major events took place. These events in his personal life along with huge dust storms in the area he was living caused his life as he knew it to completely change. Although many would see these hard times as a negative, Guthrie used them as a way to connect with the common people who also were going through rough times in the dust bowl. Not only was he able to connect with them, but he was able to create happiness in people’s who otherwise would mainly be filled with completely negative thoughts. In the book Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie the reader is able to explore the experiences that created such an influential and motivational character in the history of music.

    Read More

  • Fire Song

    566 Words  | 2 Pages

    This book is based around Bowmen Hath and Kestrel Hath who are twins. Both embark on journey with their friend Mumpo, to save their people, the Manth. This book begins after they escape with their family and a group of friends from an evil Priest/Warlord Albard and his Mastery.

    Read More

  • Singing in the Rain

    1883 Words  | 4 Pages

    The hit musical "Singin' in the Rain" may possibly be one of if not the greatest musicals of all time. With it's tale of the film world of the mid 1920's and its creative underlining love story between Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), it provokes the interest of someone who would not generally be attracted to a musical. It is a classic masterpiece that set the standards that musical films of today will be judged by. It is a classic performance by the great Gene Kelly and displays outstanding performances by Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. As well as starring in this brilliant movie, Gene Kelly teams up with Stanley Donen to make their mark in film history.

    Read More

  • Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus

    1358 Words  | 3 Pages

    In her poem, “Lady Lazarus,” Sylvia Plath uses dark imagery, disturbing diction, and allusions to shameful historical happenings to create a unique and morbid tone that reflects the necessity of life and death. Although the imagery and diction and allusions are all dark and dreary, it seems that the speaker’s attitude towards death is positive. The speaker longs for death, and despises the fact the she is continually raised up out of it.

    Read More

  • Do not go gentle into that Good Night and for Eleanor Boylan talking with God

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    The end our road that is life, is death and the second we begin to live, we begin to die. A rendition of death and the loss of a loved one is expressed in two different lights in Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that Good Night” and Anne Sexton’s “for Eleanor Boylan talking with God”. Both express the fear and vulnerability of losing someone you thought should live forever Thomas’ message is an imperative one a dark and tangible energy whereas Sexton’s tone is more passive and quiet and more driven by sorrow than anger. But as there is an underlying sense of sorrow in Thomas’ villanelle, there is also a sense of quiet anger.

    Read More

  • Ma Rainey and the Blues: Blacks and Blues

    953 Words  | 2 Pages

    Initially, Brown’s “Ma Rainey” uses the music of the blues to address hardship, a thematic centrality of the musical genre. The poem begins by referencing Rainey’s “Backwater Blues” with the following line: “It rained fo’ days an’ de skies was dark as night” (42). The lyrics describe a tempest, which regularly symbolizes internal or external unrest in works of art. In the unabridged version of “Backwater Blues,” the preceding line is immediately repeated; this repetition works to establish and reinforce a mood that is suggestive of people quite literally experiencing the blues. Another line found in both the poem and the song explicitly refers to hardship: “Trouble taken place in the lowlands at night” (43).

    Read More

  • Frederic Douglas Slave Songs

    873 Words  | 2 Pages

    The lyrics of songs inspire people to think and do many things. Today, songs expressing the quality of being beautiful and important in society can be found. Songs encouraging love and taking chances within oneself and others are listened to. None the less, there exists songs expressing hatred, anger, sorrow, and feelings of desolation. Lyrics are limitless, they simply express that of the person’s internal emotions. Songs can convey a misunderstanding or an unclear interpretation. Much like the lyrics of today, slave songs conveyed a deep and heart-wrenching message, that to many listeners, were never quite understood. Songs are simply an expression of truth. In an environment which otherwise punished truth, slave songs were a subversive way to communicate the truthfulness of both sorrow and refusal to abandon hope. In Douglas’ narrative the slave songs express the hatred of slavery, dehumanization of the victims, and were often misinterpreted by Northerners.

    Read More

  • Ballad of Pearl May Lee in Gwendolyn Brook's Street in Bronzeville

    1802 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gwendolyn Brook’s “Ballad of Pearl May Lee” came from her book called Street in Bronzeville. This book exemplifies Brook’s “dual place in American literature” (Smith, 2). It is associated with Modernist poetry, as well as the Harlem Renaissance. This book is known for its theme of victimizing the poor, black woman. “Ballad of Pearl May Lee” is a poem that uses tone to represent the complex mood of the ballad. While tone and mood are often used interchangeably, there are differences even though they often work together in a poem. A poem’s mood refers to the atmosphere or state of mind that the poem takes on. This is often conveyed through the tone, which is the style or manner of expression through writing. In this poem, Brooks uses tone to enhance the mood. This paper will shed light on the idea that the mood of the poem is affected by the tone in several ways in order to make the mood inconsistent. Some of the ways that tone does this is by several episodic shifts in the scene of the poem, the repetition of stanzas at the end of the poem, the use of diction, and the change in the speaker’s stance throughout the poem. These poetic techniques enhance the speaker’s current feeling of self-pity and revengeful satisfaction by her mixed emotions associated with this reflection.

    Read More

  • The Day Lady Died: An Unorthodox Elegy To The Great Billie Holiday

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    Frank O’Hara’s The Day Lady Died is an unorthodox elegy to the great Billie Holiday, one that explores a more distant but no less human form of mourning a notable figure from afar when one feels personally invested in them. The Day Lady Died makes good use of a captivatingly talkative first person narrator with a penchant for mentioning seemingly insignificant details that end up being paramount to the poem’s narrative. Its run-on form lends to the nature of the poem being an internal stream of consciousness that aids in capturing those small details and utilizing them to paint a bigger picture of day that will live on both in poetry and in history as The Day Lady Died.

    Read More

  • Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

    2194 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant.

    Read More

  • The Wind of Change, by The Scorpions

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every once in a while there are songs that enclose a message that appeals to feelings of common interest as well as historical events. The interesting thing about these songs is that they give to the future listeners a perception of what was being felt about that specific moment in history. For instance, “The Wind of Change” by the Scorpions is one of the few songs that as far as I know do this. This song is about the historical changes that succeeded the downfall of communism as well as the Berlin wall. Hence, the lyric of this song encloses the feelings of a generation that sees peace and freedom for the first time after a long time of hostile political relationships. This message could be perceived after the first time the song is heard. Yet, by paying attention to the poetical devices used in this song, listener could have a better appreciation about the tone and theme that this song encloses.

    Read More

More about James Taylor Fire And Rain

Open Document