Here's a shortish-long video about how to read and appreciate metaphors in poetry, and how we might read the metaphors in one of Cavafy's early poems, "Candles." Be sure to respond to the question at the end of the video with a COMMENT below. Hope "time flies" for you watching this video, so you don't feel like you "wasted your time" (P.S. those are metaphors). :)
Carla Torres:
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of a song that has many metaphors within, I think of Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. In this song, there are many metaphors that are used but one that specifically comes to mind is when he sings, "If I leave here tomorrow, Would you still remember me? For I must be traveling on, now cause there's too many places I've got to see. But, if I stayed here with you, girl, things just couldn't be the same. Cause I'm as free as a bird now and this bird you can not change..." There is passion in the way that it is sung and the meaning behind it is in a way intense. In the song there is a story being told about a guy who must leave and move on with his life because there is nothing good for him where he is currently at. The main metaphors that is within the lyrics is when he is singing about being a bird and being free. He cannot physically be a bird and fly away to resolve all of his problems but instead all he can do is walk away. In my opinion, I feel like the "poet" / Lynyrd Skynyrd, wants us - the listeners - to be aware that it is okay to walk away from things no matter the difficultly. Which in a way, makes me want to be a bird as well and escape from certain aspects of life.
Great response! It's always fun to revisit a classic song and analyze it to see why it became so famous. Though the music is great, I think the poetry of the song is underrated and really resonates with its listeners. This song uses some of the classic metaphors of travel--particularly the metaphor "life s a journey," and being a 'free bird' suggests that there are no roads or prescribed voyages. We can forge our own paths and find our own destiny.
DeleteMy current favorite song, "Mystery of Love" by Sufjan Stevens is the first song that came to mind. This song has been my number one most listened to song on Spotfify for the past two years so I have listened to and thought about it a lot haha! The first verse reads:
ReplyDeleteOh, to see without my eyes
The first time that you kissed me
Boundless by the time I cried
I built your walls around me
White noise, what an awful sound
Fumbling by Rogue River
Feel my feet above the ground
Hand of God, deliver me
The opening line to this song where Sufjan says, "Oh, to see without my eyes, the first time that you kissed me," in my opinion is one of the most powerful metaphors in the song. I think it sets the tone of the song in the perfect way; this song helps me when I feel sad and when I feel happy, because I think it represents the "mystery of love" so well hehe. Love can be both sad and happy and sometimes at the same time, especially when you are reflecting back on a past love. I think this line in particular represents the complete loss of self and sense that sometimes accompanies falling in love. When you kiss someone for the first time, all of your senses seem to be heightened and I think this is described by seeing without the eyes. I think it also could represent some type of "blindness" that accompanies love as well. This song and its metaphors work so well because I think that no matter what perspective you bring to the song, it can speak to an experience of love. There is also a great line at the end of the song that sings, "Shall I sleep within your bed.. river of unhappiness." Love is a beautiful thing, no matter if it can be understood or not; I think this line speaks to the ends of relationships as you try to hold on to something that you can no longer understand or that you may have never understood in the first place and you're drowning in this "river of unhappiness." I could go on for hours about how much I love this song, but I'll stop there!! Sufjan Stevens is a genius and this will remain one of my favorite songs just because I feel like Stevens wrote it for the mourning of a relationship that was both blissful and awful.
I just listened to that song bc of this meg, so good!
DeleteVery eloquent! A superb analysis of what sounds like an amazing song. It's also VERY Cavafy-esque, in the sense of love being something imperfect and incomplete, that can only truly be glimpsed in retrospect, often when the actual emotion is gone or has ebbed somewhat. Because in the moment, you can't see, you can only feel--you're literally walking blind. Love IS the blind leading the blind, since no one knows where they're going on what they're doing. Yet after the first flush of love, you can see the little moments and analyze them almost like a poem. I love the line "built your walls around me," since walls are made for protecting but can also isolate and also 'blind.' Cavafy writes a lot about walls, usually in relation to age--how old age creates walls that isolate one from life and the surrounding community. But love can do this as well, in bad and good ways!
DeleteYHelm: Diamond Rio "How Your Love Makes Me Feel"
ReplyDeleteBuy an ice cream
And see how far we can drive before it melts kind
of feelin'...that's how your love makes me feel inside.
In this song, the feeling of being in love is compared to several things. Ice cream is one of them.
This metaphor makes the listener think of the anxiety that comes with an ice cream on a summer day, trying to eat it before it turns into mush in your hand. Its yummy and cool and you look forward to its creamy cool goodness. I think the "poet" wants the listener to re-live that "hurry up and enjoy it before it melts!" feeling. The ice cream represents falling in love. Its refreshing and enjoyable, but you don't want to miss any of it.
Ha, I love this--a literal ice cream cone becomes a metaphor: love like the tenuous nature of an ice cream cone: delicious, but very, very brief--and then it's gone forever. But that's like life itself--the great moments go by quickly, even though you spend half your life waiting for it. Like a kid always bugging their parents for ice cream: you build it up so much, but then once you have it, it's gone. You just have those 5 minutes of heaven. Very cool metaphor.
DeleteAmily Clary
ReplyDelete"The Drug in Me is You" by Falling in Reverse
If we are born to die and we all die to live. Then what`s the point of living life if it just contradicts.
I think about the lyric of this song quite often. The whole song talks about misery and about how loving this girl is like a drug to him. Something that is not good but he is addicted to. This particular lyric is a metaphor in my eyes for life as a whole. The more you want something, the more that thing seems to push you away whether that be happiness or love. On another note, it is asking why humans even exist if we will all just die. All in the same lyric though, if humans lived forever then what would be the point of life because it would be an ongoing cycle of pointlessness. My mantra is that life is all about the experience, and if you had experienced everything in life then what would still be left worth living for. Hence why the lyric is a metaphor asking a broad question of why does life contradict. The answer to that question could be anything you wanted from religious to the passions in your own life. All in all I believe its saying that you should live your life to the fullest extent because we will all eventually die, whether that is chasing something that is like a drug, or some other passion we have in life.
This song goes perfectly with the poems "Thermopylae" and "Waiting for the Barbarians" among others, that we discussed today in class (wish you could have added your two cents to this!). Cavafy talks about who easy it is to give up in the face of inevitable death. We are ALL going to get overrun by the invading Medes (Persians), and we are ALL just 300 pitiful Spartan soldiers trying to hold off the biggest army on the earth. But it's not about winning, and it's not about walking off the field to brag about it. It's how you live and die in that one moment you prove yourself a human being. If we know we're going to die, then we have nothing to gain but our own self-worth; we should be able to scoff at everything else except what truly gives us meaning and purpose. You can't take fame and money with you, but your convictions could change the world (or make you happy you lived in it, however briefly).
DeleteStevie Nicks
ReplyDelete"Landslide"
"Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing' ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?"
This song is very metaphorical in the sense that life can be like a landslide when going through life changing events. In the first line she is praying to the sky, trying to find someone to tell her what love is about. The second represents the innocents that a child has and wonders if she can keep it. The third is if she can withstand the milestones she is about to go through in her life and the challenges can be like a storm in a sea. The last is that like seasons, things die in winter but always bloom again. When writing this she also had just broke up with Lindsay Buckingham, who was also a member in Fleetwood Mac and a reason she got in the band. She was afraid that it would have an effect on her career, but she obviously has enough talent to stand on her own two feet.
Yes, this is a classic song, and even the title is a metaphor that relates to so many situations in life. I think one of the most common metaphors in the English language has to do with water and the ocean, which is strange, since a good chunk of the country is landlocked. But we are all born of the ocean, in a sense, and we can all relate to the ocean's tides and how they are tied to the seasons. These are such classic metaphors, but escape being a cliche because of how they're put together. It's beautiful with or without the music.
DeleteThe song that I've had on repeat for awhile now is 'Before You Go' by Lewis Capaldi. This song is heart-wrenching and uses some beautiful, tragic metaphors to emphasize the suffering of the song's subject. In the chorus, Capaldi sings "Was there something I could have said//To make your heart beat better?//If only I'd have known you had a storm to weather//". The "storm" that Capaldi is referring to is the emotional pain that this person was going through. This song is a plea for the person to ask for help before they kill themselves. In the second verse, Capaldi sings "When you're hurt under the surface//Like troubled water running cold//Well, time can heal but this won't//". The "troubled water" that is running cold refers to the life slowly draining out of the subject. The subject won't get their life back because healing is impossible. This song is incredibly sad, but I think it's a beautiful ode to a life lost.
ReplyDeleteYes, I love when a poem makes tragedy beautiful, or at least expresses a terrible subject in a beautiful way (there should be a word for that, and probably is in another language--probably in Greek!). I love the rhyme, too, on better/weather, since it's imperfect but goes so well in the lines. I think so much of poetry is subverting our expectations, which in turn makes us see the world in a new light; Cavafy is a master at this, even in translation. And this song captures this sense beautifully, too.
DeleteWhen I was in high school, our choral group commissioned a piece by composer Paul Carey. He set a poem, "A Sleepless Night", by Paul Levine, to music, and this has been my favorite poem ever since. Therefore I will use it here although it's sort of cheating!
ReplyDeleteApril, and the last of the plum blossoms
scatters on the black grass
before dawn. The sycamore, the lime,
the struck pine inhale
the first pale hints of sky.
An iron day,
I think, yet it will come
dazzling, the light
rise from the belly of leaves and pour
burning from the cups
of poppies.
The mockingbird squawks
from his perch, fidgets,
and settles back. The snail, awake
for good, trembles from his shell
and sets sail for China. My hand dances
in the memory of a million vanished stars.
A man has every place to lay his head.
"My hand dances in the memory of a million vanished stars" is not literal, of course; it's a way of saying that the speaker understands his place in the history of this old, old world. The stars - and I think this stands not only for literal stars but for all of that which has been - are no longer there, but their memory (and this is a personification, stars don't remember and they don't create memories) seems so vivid for the speaker. And the idea that they "vanish" is so evocative. It creates this image of a reality so ephemeral and yet so lovely that the speaker, for this moment, can transcend the limits of his temporal existence and consider that, for as long as he is alive, "a man has every place to lay his head".
Wow, that's a great poem, and totally new to me. I love your reading of the metaphor--it expresses a sentiment close to some of Cavafy's poems as well, esp. the idea that "for this moment, he can transcend the limits of his temporal existence." Very cool!
DeleteCallie Farley: "Hoax" by Taylor Swift
ReplyDeleteYou probably know me well by know and just knew I would pick a Taylor Swift song but on her new album, Folklore, she has a long called "Hoax" and it is filled with metaphors!
My only one
My smoking gun
My eclipsed sun
This has broken me down
My twisted knife
My sleepless night
My winless fight
This has frozen my ground
My best laid plan
Your sleight of hand
My barren land
I am ash from your fire
Stood on the cliffside screaming, "Give me a reason"
Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in
Don't want no other shade of blue but you
No other sadness in the world would do
You know I left a part of me back in New York
You knew the hero died so what's the movie for?
You knew it still hurts underneath my scars
From when they pulled me apart
You knew the password so I let you in the door
You knew you won so what's the point of keeping score?
You knew it still hurts underneath my scars
From when they pulled me apart
But what you did was just as dark
Darling, this was just as hard
As when they pulled me apart
My only one
My kingdom come undone
My broken drum
You have beaten my heart
Don't want no other shade of blue but you
No other sadness in the world would do
(Continued in a comment!!)
Most song's include metaphors in some ways but "Hoax" is absolutely full of them. First, As an idiom, a “smoking gun” refers to very strong evidence. In this instance, it implies that the song’s subject might be the inspiration for much of Swift’s songwriting. This lyric reminds me of others from her album "reputation"-- “Look What You Made Me Do” which touches upon betrayal: "You laugh when you lie // You said the gun was mine" and “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”, a later track on 2017’s reputation, references violent betrayal in a similar fashion: "You stabbed me in the back while shaking my hand". However, when she writes all these things-- "My only one // My smoking gun // My eclipsed sun // My twisted knife // My sleepless night // My winless fight"-- she is saying that the subject of the song is all these things to her or the reason for all of these things, not they they are literally those things. For example, "My sleepless night" could be her saying that they are the reason for her sleepless nights. Next the lyrics, "My barren land // I am ash from your fire", both rising from the ashes and barren land symbolize growth and new life after a difficult period, however, in this song I believe that she is saying that she hasn't risen from the ashes yet, she lays there like ash from a fire. Then the lyrics, "Don't want no other shade of blue but you // No other sadness in the world would do", while she recognizes their relationship has major flaws, she wants to be with her partner rather than move onto someone else, who she knows she could also have a broken relationship with. The next set of lyrics are "You know the hero died so what's the movie for?" here Taylor draws a parallel between the inevitability of the destruction/death of the protagonist in many movies and the pointlessness of continuing to pursue a toxic relationship. Taylor also mentions the idea of a “hero’s death” as a metaphor for her pessimism while being in an unstable relationship with her song from 2019, “The Archer”, "I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost // The room is on fire, invisible smoke // And all of my heroes die all alone // Help me hold on to you". Then the lyrics, "You know it still hurts underneath my scars // From when they pulled me apart", Taylor could be referring to old wounds from exes, but I think that the “they” she is referring to is likely the media. In 2016-2017 Taylor had to deal with absolutely horrible scrutiny form the media. Headlines, in fact, tore her apart. Later in the song the lyrics, "My kingdom come undone", which once again echo's lyrics from a previous song, "Call It What You Want", "My castle crumbled overnight // I brought a knife to a gunfight // They took the crown, but it’s alright" where she is referring to how she was super successful and then when the media started to scrutinize her so much and other celebrities started feeding into that she felt like her world was falling apart and everything she worked so hard to have. I think this is a similar metaphor in "Hoax", when a lover leaves or hurts you horribly, it can feel like your world is falling apart.
DeleteDamn! This is an insanely good close reading which is cross-referenced with other songs and albums, even! I listened to the song as I read your analysis to help me (since I didn't know it) and you gave me a wonderful metaphor-by-metaphor guide to the symbolic undercurrents of the song. It definitely changed the way I would have listened to it without your analysis! Great work here, and almost a paper in itself. This is how you should ALWAYS write about literature--with this level of engagement and analysis. My wife is a Taylor Swift fan and I made her read this because I knew she would enjoy it (she did).
DeletePaul Harris:
ReplyDeleteBeing a huge fan of musicals as well as the Muppets, I will say without shame that "Rainbow Connection" is one of my favorite songs from that series and contains a fairly interesting metaphor many can relate to.
Below are the lyrics:
Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told, and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me
Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
Look what it's done so far
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me
All of us under its spell
We know that it's probably magic
Have you been half asleep, and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same
I've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that I'm supposed to be
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me
La-da-da-de-da-da-do
La-da-da-da-da-de-da-do
The "rainbow connection" described in the song is the dream we chase in life; to elaborate, we're always dreaming of a better life and what our life would be like had we accomplished all our goals. Such an idea seems out of reach for many of us, and all we yearn for is a glimpse of that life. This fascination of this life is what motivates us to live and move forwards with our ambitions, as each step forward is a step closer towards discovering that "Rainbow Connection". Like the lyrics describe, the rainbow connection speaks to us and follows us, even in our dreams. Should we listen to that voice and move towards it, someday we'll find it.
Sorry, I can't allow you to write about the Muppets--that's too much! (kidding). But I know this song, and it has a beautiful sentiment--and a completely apt metaphor. The rainbow is wonderful because we know it's an illusion, a trick of the light, yet we all choose to believe in it anyway. It still inspires us. As the poet Wordsworth wrote, "my heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky! So was it when I was a boy, so is it now that I am a man, or let me die!" (paraphrase--not verbatim). But things don't have to be 'real' to believe in them, nor does something have to be attainable to enrich our lives. This is like the poem "The First Step," where the young poet complains that he'll never make it to the top of the staircase of poetry. And the experienced poet says, "so what? The first step is just as good as the last. It's taking that first step that makes you a poet, not whether you become world famous!" (another paraphrase, of course). Whether you catch the rainbow or find the pot of gold is irrelevant; it's just something that gets you setting off on the road to adventure. We'll see this sentiment again, and more powerfully, in the poem "Ithaca" which we'll read soon.
DeleteHi-Lo (Hollow)
DeleteBishop Briggs
Killing me slowly, holding me close
Begging for mercy, forgiving the ghost
Say that you love me, lay me to waste
We've build a fire and you put out the flames
You're so hi-lo, hi-lo
Hi-lo, hi-lo
You're so hi-lo, hi-lo
Hollow, hollow
And I'm so hollow, hollow
Hollow, hollow
I'm so hollow, hollow
Hollow, hollow, oh
I'm so hollow, hollow, oh
I'm so hollow, hollow, oh
The safety is broken, intentions are numb
Whispers and daggers, we're losing our tongue
Tracing the stitches, searching for grace
Say that you love me but you're fading to gray
You're so hi-lo, hi-lo
Hi-lo, hi-lo
You're so hi-lo, hi-lo
Hollow, hollow
And I'm so hollow, hollow
Hollow, hollow
I'm so hollow, hollow
Hollow, hollow, oh
I'm so hollow, hollow, oh
I'm so hollow, hollow
Foster my heart, foster my…
This is one of my favorite songs right now and it is FULL of metaphors. The first line is a metaphor and they just keep going on. It refers to the feeling of longing or lust as being killed. Throughout this entire song it compares pain with pleasure through its many metaphors. It is as if desire is unbearable but so welcome at the same time. I think the name also gives that away.
I love the metaphor here of being hollow, since obviously no one can be hollow--or empty inside. But as a metaphor, it works; someone can be empty because they're drained of emotion, or they can be lifeless, without the depth and spark that makes us human. The sound reinforces this with related metaphors of being numb, being gray, and being laid to waste. It's fun to think about the body in this way--as something that breaks (or breaks down) and becomes unusable. This describes the experience of pain and heartbreak, since you feel that hollowness in your heart--as if it really has been drained of all emotion. It really takes you inside this experience.
DeleteSo I don’t really listen to English songs because Spanish music in my opinion is way better lol! But one of my favorite English Songs is Girl On Fire by Alicia Keys. This song is full of metaphors.
ReplyDeleteThis girl is on fire
This girl is on fire
She's walking on fire
This girl is on fire
Looks like a girl, but she's a flame
So bright, she can burn your eyes
Better look the other way
You can try but you'll never forget her name
She's on top of the world
To be honest I think she is talking about herself in this song. She is talking about how she is so successful and the many times people have tried to knock her down she always rose to the top of the world. This song is so relatable to women especially after going through hardships. The fire in this song means the success we have accomplished. My favorite line is so bright she could burn your eyes// better look the other way. To me that means “don’t try to mess with me during my success how about you just leave me alone instead!” This is what I love about songs. So many people can relate to them and make us feel empowered. Songs are there for us when we are sad, happy, successful, angry, etc. There is probably a song for every emotion and it is the words in those songs that trigger those emotions.
Yes, this is a fascinating song, and I love the metaphor "Looks like a girl, but she's a flame." You wonder, how could a girl be a flame? What would that entail? It's such a universal metaphor, since we think of things burning being powerful, passionate, and inspired--something that can 'catch' on other things and 'set the world afire.' But also, we get the idea of brightness, as if she could literally blind you with her light. It's a great way of talking about someone's inner fire and passion, and how that translates to the feeling people have around her. It's very well done!
DeleteI do not know if the line from a song I am providing is a metaphor in the exact definition per say, but I feel it is adequate because based on what one may have perceived during life they will take the lyrics differently than I may have.
ReplyDeleteThe song I am referring to is called "Grace" by Lil Baby. In this song he says "Rolls Royce umbrella, I'm hopin it rain". The poet says this because he has come from a rough place and beat the odds that were stacked against him. Now he has made enough money to support his family and take care of his people. He has also made it through every situation he never thought he would get through, therefore he is ready for the next storm because he has always came out on the other side of every storm he has ever gone through.
For me this lyric really means a lot because I have had to endure some things I never thought I would endure. Those experiences brought me to my lowest, but I did more than just get through them, and I came out on the other side a better man and a more well rounded man as well. Now more than ever when I am faced with a challenge that is stacked against me I do not flinch and I double down on myself because I know that I have overcome the moments that I previously thought were going to break me. Quotes or lyrics like these are really important to me because they help me come to an understanding that struggling in life is ok and normal, but what is not ok is to sulk and have a pitty party. Instead I need to cowboy up and welcome the storm.
Yes, it's a cool metaphor because usually the rain is a bad metaphor--it suggests "when it rains, it pours," or simply the feeling of getting drenched and feeling miserable. Yet when you have a nice, new umbrella, you want to try it out--especially a "Rolls Royce" one! Metaphorically, it suggests he's ready for any storm, any situation, and he wants to prove himself. This can be very inspiring, as you suggest, because it shows that life isn't the problem; it's how you prepare for life that matters. I think Cavafy would agree with this sentiment.
DeleteThis is the English translation of one of my favorite songs called "The Truth Untold" by BTS.
ReplyDeleteFull of loneliness
This garden bloomed
Full of thorns
I bind myself in this sand castle
What is your name
Do you have a place to go
Oh could you tell me?
I saw you hiding in this garden
And I know
All of your warmth is real
The blue flower your hand was picking
I want to hold it but
It’s my fate
Don’t smile to me
Lie to me
Because I can’t get closer to you
There’s no name you can call me
You know that I can’t
Show you me
Give you me
I can’t show you a ruined part of myself
Once again I put a mask on and go to see you
But I still want you
Bloomed in a garden of loneliness
A flower that resembles you
I wanted to give it to you
After I take off this foolish mask
But I know
I can't do that forever
I have to hide
Because I'm a monster
I am afraid
I am shattered
I’m so afraid
That you will leave me again in the end
Once again I put on a mask and go to see you
The only thing I can do
In the garden
In this world
Is to bloom a pretty flower that resembles you
And to breathe as the me that you know
But I still want you
I still want you
Maybe back then
A little
Just this much
If I had the courage to stand before you
Would everything be different now
I'm crying
That’s disappeared
That’s fallen
Left alone in this sandcastle
Looking at this broken mask
And I still want you
But I still want you
But I still want you
And I still want you
As you can see, it contains plenty of metaphors. However, I think that the most prominent one is the metaphor regarding the mask. In the lyrics, they use the mask to symbolize the facade that one creates in order to hide parts of themselves that they deem undesirable in fear of scaring away or hurting the ones that they like or love and becoming alone.
When you listen to them sing this song, their voices sound utterly heartbroken, and at points, it almost sounds like they're about to cry while singing. The message that they constantly try to convey throughout their music is the idea of loving yourself. So, this song fits right in with that. It's essentially trying to emphasize the loss that is associated with hiding your true self and how doing the opposite might allow you to avoid such losses and lead to more happiness. That's why the mask metaphor is so important in this song, the singers want you to destroy your own and save yourself.
Also, fun fact, this song is actually based on “La Citta Di Smeraldo” or the Story of Smeraldo Flower in a small town in Italy.
Wow, this sounds like a great song--I've never heard it, but I like the lyrics all by themselves. The idea of masks is a very old metaphor, and it's so universal, since no one really sees someone as they truly are; we see one of many masks. But some people are more conscious than others in designing a mask because they feel like they're a 'monster' (another metaphor) that would scare off anyone who looked beneath. The idea of a broken mask is also cool, because if the mask is broken, that would force you to face the truth and never return to that false identity again (a scary proposition). I'd love to hear how the music dramatizes this situation!
DeleteWhen I try to think of the most profound use of language and metaphors in music my mind automatically goes to 2Pac. Here is an excerpt from one of his many award winning posthumous singles, Ghetto Gospel-
ReplyDelete"Tell me, do you see that old lady? Ain't it sad?
Livin' out of bag but she's glad for the little things she has
And over there, there's a lady, crack got her crazy
Guess who's givin' birth to a baby?
I don't trip or let it fade me
From out of the fryin' pan we jump into another form of slavery"
There is so much to unpack here but just focusing on the final, more prominent, line we see where Pac takes a common and popular idiom in, "out of the frying pan and into the fire," and rephrases it by using the first portion only, "out of the fryin pan," and alters the last half to fit into the narrative that he is addressing in the song, "we jump into another form of slavery." In this instance 2Pac is taking an idiom that is known to a vast majority of his audience, a phrase that happens to be rooted in medieval Europe, and rewording it to use it as a metaphor for the social restrictions, struggles and oppression of African American's who escaped slavery, overcame segregation but continue to experience new and old forms of oppression in modern society.
Yes, this is the very definition of poetry--taking a cliched metaphor and doing something new with it, so we experience the situation in a completely different light. We no longer feel "out of the frying pan and into the fire," but changing it to "into another form of slavery," we can get specifically the African American experience, or the experience of the modern world, where we're controlled by one form of manipulation after another (politics, debt, jobs, etc.). It's a very clever line!
DeleteKurstyn Young:
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite songs is Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish. It starts by saying "I've been watching you for some time, can't stop staring at those ocean eyes. Burning cities and napalm skies. Fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes." This song is based around someones "ocean eyes", but the meaning behind this, is really just the emotion in the eyes. So many people keep things hidden and they can only truly be seen in the eyes. No matter what someone's body language is, the eyes are always a true way to understand what is going on. You can see happiness, sadness, anger, etc,. We are supposed to understand what two people in love can do with just their eyes, the communication that can be accomplished when you can truly understand someone's emotions. She sings in almost a casual, yet somber voice and the music also fits. It is just honest and simple about what can be done with eyes alone.
Yes, this is a great metaphor, since it doesn't literally make sense, but we all understand what it means--or what it could mean. Something as deep and mysterious as the ocean itself, and probably the same kind of blue as well. The eyes are said to be the "windows to the soul" (another metaphor), and this song plays on that idea, but invents a new metaphor to make it a more interesting experience. Very cool.
DeleteThere was a fault in my brain when I thought of how to approach this question. It was “How can I pick just one song to choose out of all the songs in my head??” But then, my brain said “Just pick one! They all have some metaphor in them!” So what did I do? I agonized over it for the last week! And then I decided to say “screw it,” and went to a random song picker & let it pick for me. The one it picked was “Firework” by Katy Perry, which happens to be one of my favorites. So, here are some of the lyrics:
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to feel like a waste of space
You're original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow
Maybe a reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow
And when it's time, you'll know
You just gotta ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July
'Cause baby, you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go, "Oh, oh, oh"
As you shoot across the sky
Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make 'em go, "Oh, oh, oh"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe, awe, awe”
Basically, the lyrics for this song are what I have to remind myself of daily. I currently have a broken foot, so I’ve had to ask for help for absolutely everything. I feel like I’m burdening everyone because I’m the one who has had to take care of this family since 2005 and it’s only been just over the last two years that I’ve had any help from my husband. He got into a really deep depression, and I was taking care of him, me, and all 4 kids mostly by myself.
Ohh, you want the meaning behind the lines?
“After a hurricane comes a rainbow/Maybe a reason why all the doors are closed/so you could open one that leads you to the perfect road,”
The "lesson behind the words" is that Katy Perry is saying: “Look, you’re going through some rough shit right now. Things are looking like the universe isn’t listening to you. It feels like it's putting every single obstacle in your path, and it sucks. But maybe, just maybe, the reason why you’re going through this is there’s something better in the future. Is it possible that this rough patch is here to help you sharpen your skills?”
“You just gotta ignite the light/And let it shine/Just own the night/Like the Fourth of July, 'Cause baby, you're a firework/ Come on, show 'em what you're worth/ Make 'em go, "Oh, oh, oh”/ As you shoot across the sky”
What she’s saying here is essentially “Freak out. It’s fine. Hell, it's even normal. But once you’re done with that, stand up, put on your big-people panties, straighten your crown and be the bad-ass strong person that you know you are! Make people wonder how in the hell your shoulders can take so much! Make people look up to you and say “Damn. That person Dani, she’s strong!””
Basically the whole song is about going through some rough shit, or having rough thoughts, and giving you hope that things are going to get better.
Mary Hall
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite bands is the Gaslight Anthem, and all of their songs are very metaphor-heavy. Sometimes you can tell exactly what the writer (Brian Fallon) meant and sometimes he leaves you going, "I'm sure that's supposed to mean something but I don't know what".
One of my favorite songs by them is Mae, which is about the young love Fallon had while in the place he grew up. In that song, and a few of his others, he makes it clear that he doesn't want to stay trapped in this town his whole life and watch opportunities pass him. He doesn't want to settle. "And still the city pumps it's aching heart for one more drop of blood/we work our fingers down to dust/and we wait for kingdom come/with the radio on." Fallon doesn't want to work some menial job in his hometown while wishing for something better to come along. He has so much ambition, describing himself as being "born beside a river that flows to a raging sea/that will one day serve to quell/or one day be the death of me".
However, if he could have kept one thing, it would have been Mae. She is the best thing about his young life, and he reminisces about their relationship and youth. "In my faded jeans and faraway eyes and salty carnival kiss" is about a date they when on.