Becoming Familiar with a Song

Before you can really criticize and evaluate a song, you need to become “familiar” with it. Listen to it a couple of times. Listen to the melody, the harmony, and the rhythm. (We will discuss these terms in much more detail later.) Can you identify the musical instruments? Have you started to recognise parts of the structure of the song? Read the lyrics.

The following questions are adapted from the book Perrine’s Sound & Sense: An Introduction to Poetry by Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson and will help you to understand the lyrics of the song, and the song as a whole, much better:

1. Who is the speaker? What kind of person is the speaker?
2. Is there an identifiable audience for the speaker? In other words, who is the singer singing to? (For instance, is it a Casanova singing to woo a potential lover?) What can we know about the audience (her, him, or them)?
3. What is the occasion?
4. What is the setting in time (hour, season, century, and so on)?
5. What is the setting in place (indoors or out, city or country, land or sea, region, nation, hemisphere)?
6. What is the central purpose of the song?
7. State the central idea or theme of the song in a sentence.
8. (a.) Outline the ideas in the lyrics to show its structure and development, or (b.) summarize the events of the song.
9. Paraphrase the lyrics.
10. Discuss the diction of the song. Point out words that are particularly well chosen and explain why.
11. Discuss the imagery of the song. What kinds of imagery are used? Is there a structure of imagery?
12. Point out examples poetic devices, such as metaphor, simile, personification, and metonymy, and explain their appropriateness.
13. Point out and explain symbols. If the song is allegorical, explain the allegory.
14. Point out and explain examples of paradox, overstatement, understatement, and irony. What is their function?
15. Point out and explain any allusions. What is their function?
16. What is the tone (i.e. feeling) of the lyrics? How is it achieved? How does the music contribute, or contrast, the tone of the lyrics?
17. Point out the significant examples of sound repetition in the words and explain their function.
18. (a.) What is the meter of the poem (lyrics)? (b.) Copy the lyrics and mark its scansion.
19. Discuss the adaptation of sound to sense.
20. Describe the form or pattern (i.e. structure) of the song.
21. Criticize and evaluate the song.

Use the questions above, specifcally question #20 and #1-#9, on the two songs below:

• "Life for Rent" by Dido -- Listen to the song on YouTube, and read the lyrics here.
• "The Ballad of Love and Hate" by The Avett Brothers -- Listen to the song on YouTube, and read the lyrics here. This song is an allegory. Explain the allegory (see question #13).