Song Review Poetry Assignment | Online Homework Help

English 1B
Essay #3 (min. of 4 full pages)
Revised Due Date:
Cooper
In this essay you will be discussing the lyrics of a song. It should be a song you are familiar with and one that is a favorite of yours because of its lyrics. The purpose of the essay is to argue that the song’s lyrics contain the attributes of poetry. Your job is to demonstrate the lyrics are poetic in nature by showing the reader the elements that you believe make it poetry. Make sure that you pick a song whose lyrics do incorporate at least some of the significant and/or traditional elements of poetry. Obviously, traditional elements such as rhythm and rhyme are things to look for as well as the other attributes on the poetry handouts I provided. While your lyrics don’t have to contain all these traditional elements, the lyrics do need to have enough attributes for you to argue they are poetry. As well as discussing the form of the lyrics, you should also analyze the meaning of any parts of the lyrics that are not self evident and require explanation for the purposes of showing why the lyrics are poetry, so try to pick a song whose words are not blatantly obvious or simplistic. Think about the song’s theme, tone, diction and use of other attributes such as symbolism including such specific devices as metaphor, simile, and other figures of speech etc.
The essay’s introduction paragraph should provide some background to the discussion by discussing the reasons why you chose the song and information about the writer, performer, what CD or source it was part of, and any other information that is noteworthy and of interest. The introduction should end with a thesis that states the purpose of your essay. The support paragraphs of the essay should systematically support the thesis, arguing why the lyrics can be seen as poetry.
The essay’s form should be MLA: double spaced, one inch margins all around with class information on the top left hand side. If you use a title, make sure it does something useful. The title of the song should be in quotation marks, and the title of the CD or other source should be in italics or underlined. Use quotes from the lyrics where appropriate to help substantiate your ideas (use intext parenthetical references to show line numbers of quotes). The essay needs to use at least three reputable external sources to support your ideas (no dictionary.com or Wikipedia type sources). One of the sources may be used in the introduction paragraph to substantiate the discussion about the songwriter/performer, but the rest should be used to support points about the poetical qualities of the lyrics. You will need a works cited page in the 8th edition of MLA form to show the sources.
Do not simply explicate or paraphrase the lyrics. The purpose of the essay is to argue why the lyrics can be seen as poetry.
A copy of the lyrics needs to be attached to the essay (at the end) but is not to be included as part of the four pages minimum required for the essay.

The Song that I chose is called “I forget where we were” by Ben Howard. Here are the lyrics:
Oh hey,
I wasn’t listening
I was watching serial
Blinded by the sunshine strip
You, you were in the kitchen
Oh your mind was marked and wounded with the wounders whip
And that’s how summer passed oh your,
Great divide and range of green green grass
Oh, maybe it was peace at last, who knew
Hello love, my invincible friend
Hello love, the thistle and the burr
Hello love, for you I have so many words
But I, I forget where we were
Oh hey,
I wasn’t listening,
I was stung by all of us
The blind leading up the wall
And as per usual,
You were skipping and laughing eyes at the bedroom door
Don’t take it so seriously, no
Only time is ours
The rest we’ll just wait and see
Maybe you’re right, babe, maybe
Oh no, and that’s how summer passed
Oh your, great divide
And range of green green grass
Oh, maybe I hold on fast, to you
Hello love, my invincible friend
Hello love, the thistle and the burr
Hello love, for you I have so many words
But I, I forget where we were
I, I forget where we were
I forget where we were
I forget where we were,
Oh no, and that’s how summer passed
Oh your, great divide
And range of green green grass
Oh, maybe it was peace at last, who knew