The Story Within The Lyrics
What causes someone to relate to a particular song? It could be the emotion a person feels from the song or the story that the artist creates through his or her lyrics. Lyrics can simply be seen as words of a song, but it is possible for lyrics to tell a story. In The Amen Corner, James Baldwin illustrates the complicated relationship between Margaret and Luke within the lyrics of the song that opens the play.
It appears that the opening song is focused on God. However, specific lyrics relate to the dialogues that Margaret and Luke have throughout the play. The first two lyrics of the song as “One day I walked the lonesome road / The spirit spoke unto me” (Baldwin 6). This depicts why Margaret left Luke. The audience can infer from the first lyric that Margaret walked out on Luke and that she uses the Lord as a reason for her departure. Trying to explain to Luke why she left, Margaret says, “I had to go. The Lord told me to go” (Baldwin 59). The spirit that was mentioned in the second lyric of the song is referring to the Lord. The Lord becomes Margaret’s motive for walking on her isolated road. The congregation continues to sing “And filled my heart with love— / Yes, he filled my heart with love” (Baldwin 6). Baldwin repeats these lyrics, which means they are significant in some way. These lyrics represent the love that Margaret once felt for Luke. At one point Margaret finally says, “I never stopped loving you, Luke” (Baldwin 86). She admits truthfully to Luke how her heart was always filled with her love for him.
In addition to God being a reason why Margaret left, the chorus of the song reveals that she also left because of how her and Luke were living. Near the end of the choru...
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...ms wrapped around me” (Baldwin 7). This is similar to what happened to Luke when Margaret let down her guard and confessed how she still loved Luke. The last words that Luke said were, “I’m glad you’s come back to me, Maggie. When your arms was around me I was always safe and happy” (Baldwin 86). The arms of Jesus and the arms of Margaret both serve as a comforter to the person being held.
Baldwin knew what he was doing from the start when he used this particular song to open this play. Literally, he shows his audience how appropriate this song is to be sung among people in a congregation because the words talk about God. It takes the mind of a close reader to be able to read between the lyrics and find its true significance in the work. While many could see this song as an ordinary introduction, it takes work to actually see the story within the lyrics.
The first stanza describes the depth of despair that the speaker is feeling, without further explanation on its causes. The short length of the lines add a sense of incompleteness and hesitance the speaker feels towards his/ her emotions. This is successful in sparking the interest of the readers, as it makes the readers wonder about the events that lead to these emotions. The second and third stanza describe the agony the speaker is in, and the long lines work to add a sense of longing and the outpouring emotion the speaker is struggling with. The last stanza, again structured with short lines, finally reveals the speaker 's innermost desire to "make love" to the person the speaker is in love
Baldwin begins with a brief description of the 1943 Detroit and Harlem riots and his father’s funeral. Both riots were centered on resistance to injustice, while the death of Baldwin’s father marked the end of oppression in Baldwin’s life as seen later in the work. These two events juxtaposed in the opening paragraph propose the questions that Baldwin works to answer by the end of his essay. Baldwin concludes his opening paragraph with “we drove my father to the graveyard through a wilderness of smashed plate glass” (63). The first question is “why death?” while the second question is “why resist?”
His father gave him what he needed to break free from hatred and to be strong, but now Baldwin desires that his father was still there with him to keep giving him what he needs. To keep giving him all the answers, so as not to lose all of the strength that keeps the rage in his blood from overflowing. To keep him away from the disease that ultimately brought down his father, and if he loses that strength, he will ultimately bring down himself into his own destruction.
Baldwin weaves in and out of his personal experiences and private reasons to give the reader both a small and large perspective of what is going on at the time. It’s important for the reader to have a small, personal perspective so they can connect with the emotions Baldwin expresses. At the same time a large general perspective is needed because it shows the reader that Baldwin’s experiences, although unique, is connected to a larger group of people, that in one way or another, his plight is the plight of many.
Song lyrics have set off a great generation of our leisure time than reading poetic devices, therefore song lyrics are better than poetic devices. Song lyrics have dropped numerous lines that attach to us now a days and make us listen to the line over and over unlike poetic devices. Song Lyrics have so much meaning by word choice and by relations.”Mr. Rager” by Kid Cudi, is about people fed up with society and plan on taking a journey. “Dreams” by Edgar Allen Poe, is about a man who dreams of a greater life. Mr. Rager, the song by Scott Cudi, has a better meaning than Dreaming, the poem by Edgar Allen Poe, by personification, allusion, and symbolism.
In "Annabel Lee", a young man is mourning the death of a beautiful young lady. Even though the woman had died quite some time ago, the man is still in melancholy. He misses her terribly and constantly thinks of how she was she was tragically taken from him by the angels who were jealous of their love, and by her family who didn't think the he himself was capable of bringing her to her final resting place. He loved Annabel Lee more than anyother human can love another. The following quote tells the reader how much he loves her and shows that he would do anything for her, even if that means sleeping by her tomb, each and every night. "And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side of my darling, my life and my bride, in her sepulchre there by the sea, in her tomb by the side of the sea."
We can see how we can connect the emotions and messages implied by different songs can tie into the story Anthem. As we read the novel, we were able to identify the different parts of the story as well was the different emotions expressed by each of the characters. By paying attention to the messages and emotions, we were able to find songs that contained lyrics with similar messages and emotions. By tying in songs that we listen to today with the novel, we can actually connect with the story better.
Stanzas one and two of the poem are full of imagery. The first stanza sets the scene for the poem “in a kingdom by the sea” (Poe 609) which makes you feel as if the story is going to have a “romantic” (Overview) feel to it. Then Annabel Lee comes into the story with “no other thought than to love and be loved by me” (Poe 609); This sentence is full of imagery in the sense that it makes you feel the immense capacity of love Annabel Lee had for the speaker if that was her only thought. In the second stanza the imagery takes a turn that shifts from loving and inviting to pain; The love between Annabel and the speaker was so strong that
Everyone knows how different emotions feel, so when they hear it accurately portrayed in a song they can sympathise with the singer. The way country songs convey emotions in a simple way, can tell you that those who like this music like for things to be simple. Those who like country music do what they can to lead a simple life. Songs of other genres often convey emotions in a much more complex way. The people who like these other genres often like they idea of having complex emotions and leading complex lives. How complicated a person's life is often directly correlates to the pace at which they live their lives. Which is parallel to how the meaning in a country song directly correlates to the emotion behind the
By no means am I a musical genius, I can not even carry a tune if one paid me to; therefore, distinguishing the difference between the tone, rhythm, and pitch of music is personal difficulty for me. However, relating to a character and feeling emotionally what he/she does is not a task that takes great skill. It is in our nature, as humans, to be emotionally moved by music. The sound, melody, rhythm, tone, even words in a song provoke emotions based on past experiences and current problems. Many people, most for that matter, use music as an outlet for emotion. Some compose, like Mozart, some write lyrics, others simply listen to the sounds and let their emotions as a result of the music.
For example, one line, “Soon our pilgrimage will cease; Soon our happy hearts will quiver, with the melody of peace,” which is saying that one day we will die, and you can’t stop that. “Lay we every burden down; Grace our spirits will deliver, and provide a robe and a crown,” also reveals that you should appreciate what we’ve had, and what was given to us. This song is telling you, in every line, that you can’t live forever, but appreciate what you have, while you
I would love to believe that the principles were Faith, Hope, and Charity, but this is clearly not so for most Christians, or for what we call the Christian World” (31). In this passage he is telling the reader that people do not understand what being a true Christian is; that a majority of people are going through the motions because they believe they are expected to. Baldwin desires to affect changes in the world of religion; especially for the blacks. He underscores in his essay that there is no love in the church, and that the love stopped once people left the church. Baldwin concludes the book with “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!” (106). What he means by this is that we all need to work together to make this world better. Baldwin provides a fine undertaking of representing the struggles of being a black man and how he is attempts to have a positive impact on the world, and not just on religion.
For many of us, one of the most accurate and effective ways to express the feelings that really matter to us is through music. We don’t only grow to attached to songs that are catchy, but also those with lyrics that we can relate to. It is not uncommon to feel like sometimes, artists can convey the way we feel better than we could ourselves. The storybook-like lines you read at the start of this page are a collection of lyrics
and Baldwin writes, ?the power and the promise and the mystery of that body made
Lyrics in a song factor more into the theme than any other portion of the song. The lyrics exist so the artist can tell a story or convey a message. For the song Happy Pharrel Williams uses his lyrics to convey a feeling of happiness to his audience. First the obvious attempted to convey happiness is the use of the word “happy” repeatedly throughout the entire song. In its entirety, the word “happy” is said exactly 70 times in the 3 minute and 53 second long song. To back up this repetition of happy other lyrics such as “Because I’m happy, clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do”, further increase happiness by sending a message of doing what a person wants to do, a certain act that is generally accompanied with happiness. (azlyrics 2013) Lyrics in a song control what the song is about and the feeling the audience has after they hear the song, and Pharrel Williams uses his lyrics to create a feeling of pure joy in his song Happy.