People that are “just under the upper hand” often go to desperate measures day after day to make ends meet (Sheeran 16). Out of that despair comes pain from not only the harsh way of life but also a neglecting “superior” society. “The A Team” written by Ed Sheeran and the poem “I Bleed” written by Stephanie Von Wille show a struggle of people who are “just under the upper hand.” The writer of “The A Team,” uses symbolism and hyperbole to portray to message and mood of the song. Angel, the main character, is a young adult woman who is desperately fighting her way through life. She earns her money by prostituting herself to men. Painfully, Angel is addicted to crack cocaine and lives in a state of depression. The title “The A Team” symbolizes …show more content…
The title cleverly hides the serious subject without blatantly stating it. Instead the listener has to decipher the author’s work to understand the true meaning. Another example of symbolism is the first lyric in the chorus, “just under the upper hand.” The phrase is commonly heard as having the ‘upper hand” in a situation. In other words, that person is at an advantage above others. Sometimes the advantage is earned on the contrary in most cases it is simply just received. Conversely, there are those just under the upper hand. These people are set apart because of, in most cases, poor life decisions. However, in some situations people are faced with challenges they do not deserve and it is up to them to pull through. The author also uses simile compare Angels face to crumbling pastries. In support, line 13 states “Crumbling like pasties.” Furthermore, the author portrays a feeling of despair throughout the song that helps create the theme. Each verse gives vivid imagery to help the reader visualize the desperation that Angel experiences day after day. For example, line 5 says “struggling to pay rent” then, “closed eye and hoping for a better life,” (Sheeran …show more content…
To begin, symbolism is used to create feelings of strong emotion towards drug addiction. Lines 13-14 say “ Into my veins; Evil spirits remain;” this symbolizes the drugs in her system she sees as evil and controlling of her body. Line 12, “Bearing the scars of years I branded,” refers to her skin that is scared and cut up from years of needles and self inflicted cuts. The writer uses diction and metaphor in line 18: “Needles and poison heal the webs I spin.” The author is comparing herself to a spider and uses words that help the reader imagine and picture exactly what is occurring in the story. Furthermore, the poet brings about a feeling of despair and anguish through diction. Lines 9-10 say, “Screaming from within; I want out of my skin;” This expresses that the persona feels trapped inside her worldly body and desperately longs to have freedom. In close comparison to “The A Team,” at the end of the poem “I Bleed,” the speaker finds herself in surrender. Lines 20-21, “Surrender I must; I come to trust;” then line 23, “I've cut my ties and here I bleed” explain how she is done fighting and has found peace in ending her life. The poem's theme is that pain and depression overcome the desire to survive. Therefore, surrender was the only
This gives Sanchez liberty to create unique meter of her own which she did in many lines in her poem. In every single line there is a variation of feet, and none of the lines follow a certain rhythm. This disorganization in meter and rhythm reflects the narrator’s own tumultuous life. The reader knows that the narrator struggles with a difficult relationship with her mom, and to release those feelings of anger towards her, she smoke heroin. Thus, the disorganized meter and rhythms sound just like the narrator’s own life. The meter also becomes more disorderly as the narrator becomes more involved in frenzied, drug-related activity. In line fourteen, the sentence reads “I did it. Uh. Huh. I did it. Uh huh.” Clearly, Sanchez used free verse with no meter to mirror the narrator’s own troubled
In many parts of the poem, Guest uses metaphors to show the strength that one should always keep while facing their troubles. He tells his readers to "Lift your chin and square your shoulders, plant your feet and take a brace" to prepare for whatever could be ahead (lines 2-3). Even through the metaphor "Black may be the clouds above you" which gives a clear perception of difficult and hopeless moments that might be surrounding an individual, it is still better than running since it "will not save you" (lines 8-11). It is throughout the poem that Guest has used many metaphors to remind his readers about the facing the problems that will lie ahead. It is even pointed at points, such as, "You may fail, but fall fighting" to remind the reader that not all problems can be confronted. However, the author suggests that with a person's body language, like standing tall, could become a resolve. With these metaphorical commands, it gives the reader the feeling of a solider or fighter that is preparing to face an enemy. This is also further emphasized from his use of repetition. Guest repeats the figurative phrase, "See it through" to show the reader to overcome the toughest or most hopeless of problems. It is also from this statement that he suggests to go keep going no matter what since in the end it is possible that one can succeed. Becoming the clearest and most encouraging phrase and title of the poem, Guest has made the distinction of his theme to overcome everything that one can in order to achieve the best for one's
The poem begins with the speaker’s vivid descriptions of the tattoos, reflecting their state of mind and reveling their great inner struggles. Describing the tattoo that
The opening line “I cannot let you die” (Line 1) represents how much the persona loves the reader and wants that she/he should not die. Immediately, the persona explains her love by saying “I block factual death” (Line 2). This shows that she doesn’t want you to die and she could block death with any fact. Again the second line ‘I’ is used to explain the persona’s love with ‘you’ that she can use any fact to block the death. The binary of “I” in the first two lines and use of ‘you’ before the last word “due” explains the relationship between ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘death’ in the second line. The binary use of ‘I’ in first two lines and closing them with rhyming words ‘die’ and ‘death’ create the punch line of the first stanza that no one wants his/her loved ones to die and they could try to block death using any fact they can. The link of first two lines in with line 7 and 8, that by blocking death she will “There fix you shining / In a place of sun” (Line 7, 8). The interesting link between the first two lines of Stanza 1 and last two lines reinforce the feelings of love and hate for death that everyone will block death to let their loved one shine like the
...ors to describe her life and situation. This comes primarily from the fact that in her therapy sessions that is how she is taught to deal with everything. For example, one metaphor she talks about is “… she comes up with the idea of lighting candles to symbolize my past, present, and future…I’ve noticed my past melting… my present candle has stayed pretty much the same,” (D 266). She explains them as her past is become less controlling, her present is her and concrete ideas and her future is bright and untouched. These metaphors show how much she has grown and allow the things she is learning to have more meaning. All of these combine to make the piece very effective and insightful. They help to get her point across and call people to action to help against these crimes.
The music of today has many songs in which there is a hidden meaning or stories behind the song. The song " Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke and Pharrell is a song with a hidden meaning given much to talk about , another song which has a similar meaning with previous song is "You Do Not Even Know It " by Rick Ross. The intent of this paper is to compare song to song through its similar meaning. Both of these songs have a very rough meaning. These songs are inspired in hidden personalities , lies , appearances, violation , drugs , sex, etc. In " Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke and Pharrell it talks about rape and sexual assault and all of these because of the use of alcohol and drugs. In "You Do Not Even Know It " by Rick Ross it also talks about how some people appearencess are not what they really are in
The title of the song, “Cooling,” may seem superficially simple, but through analysis of the song, one realizes that “cooling” represents life, death, and everything in between.
...ity not only suffer emotionally but candidly express this pain. These artists are able to both present this hyper-masculine image and at the same time reflect on his moral shortcoming. It is this apologetic regretful nature of drug narratives that allow the artists to become folk heroes. By telling the story of his drug dealing past and conveying a sense of regret he reaches out to those in a similar position to himself and in a way is delivering a confession to apologize to the ones that he has hurt.
There are a couple of similes the author uses in the poem to stress the helplessness she felt in childhood. In the lines, “The tears/ running down like mud” (11,12), the reader may notice the words sliding down the page in lines 12-14 like mud and tears that flowed in childhood days. The speaker compares a...
Images of drug-use are other tools that are used in this poem to help illuminate the major theme. Once again, even though the drug -users " …ate fire in paint...
To begin, the episodic shifts in scenes in this ballad enhance the speaker’s emotional confusion. Almost every stanza has its own time and place in the speaker’s memory, which sparks different emotions with each. For example, the first stanza is her memory of herself at her house and it has a mocking, carefree mood. She says, “I cut my lungs with laughter,” meaning that...
The poem, “After Great Pain”, by Emily Dickinson, is one that conveys an inner struggle of emotion and the process that a person goes through after experiencing suffering or pain. Through this poem, Dickinson utilizes physical reactions to allude to the emotional pain that can make people feel numb and empty. Included in this poem is an array of literary devices, such as oxymorons, similes, and personification. These devices help show how death and grief can be confronted, whether it be by giving into the pain or by regaining emotional strength, letting go, and moving on with life. As we work on the project, we discuss multiple aspects of the poem and how the structure and diction alludes the meaning of the poem.
Jumping right into the first line of the poem one sees that it begins by stating, “Because I could not stop for Death”. Since this line was selected for the title of the piece, it can be inferred that it must hold some strong significance. Over the course of this poem the reader is drawn to the concl...
The poet mourns the death of his loved one and wants the world to grieve with him. His wants his subjective to be objective. The first stanza links everything to noise. He wants to 'silence the piano ' for example, showing how he wants no more noise in the world. Throughout the poem, there are many imperatives. This relates back to Remember, where the poems title is included in the imperatives. The third stanza has no imperatives at all, and many antonyms. This is the poets way of saying they meant everything to him. The second stanza uses 'scribbling ' to personify a plane. The use of personification in the poem links back to Do not go gentle into that good night. The first stanza contains references to things that can be easily done like 'stop all the clocks '. The second has things that are theoretically possible but a bit harder to do. The poem seems to get less and less realistic as it goes on. The final line, 'For nothing now can ever come to any good ', is quite bleak, showing how the death of his partner has affected the poet. It gives him no good feelings
The song that I choose to do this assignment on is Fight the Power by Public Enemy. Fight the Power was written in 1989 and quickly became a street anthem for millions of youths. It reflects with issues dealing with both the Civil Rights Movement and to remind everyone that they too have Constitutional Rights. This particular song is about empowerment but also fighting the abuse of power that is given to the law enforcement agencies. It gave citizens of the U.S a more modern outlook on the many struggles that not only the African American community is up against but the other minority groups as well. The song’s message was eventually supposed to bring people together and make the world a better place, even though some teens saw it as a way