For this assignment, take a look at the devices listed under “Poetry” in your Survival Guide and pick one or two devices in order to analyze any song lyrics of your choice (I just ask that these lyrics are in English, so that we all will be able to understand and respond to them). As an example, I will write an analysis of a particular detail in Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow”:
In the metaphor of “bloody shoes,” Cardi B illustrates power as a display of both wealth and a threat of violence. She resorts to this metaphor in the context of addressing an unnamed opponent who ostensibly “can’t f*** with [her] / If [they] wanted to.” To demonstrate why she can overpower this opponent, she indicates her shoes by first saying, “These expensive,” and then narrowing in on more specific visual details: “these is red bottoms / These is bloody shoes.” In this single visual image is a metaphor that is also an allusion—she is referring to a pair of luxury Christian Louboutin high heels that have a trademarked red color on the bottom of them.
Furthermore, these high heels are stilettoes, a word that means both a long, thin heel, and also a dagger. The “bloody” color on the underside of these expensive stilettoes, then, emblemize what would happen if anyone would try to cross her. The dagger-like shoes function as both a shield and a weapon. They symbolize her wealth, which she similarly invokes as a shield and a weapon. In this context, she implies that she can use her wealth both as a buffer to ward off any reproach, and as a means of destroying anyone she wants to. Shoes here represent more than just a simple commodity; Cardi B uses them as an emblem of power and confidence precisely because of their monetary value, as well as the coded violence that is inscribed into the color of their soles.
(Song lyrics source: https://www.metrolyrics.com/bodak-yellow-lyrics-cardi-b.html)
Here is a possible response post to an analysis like this:
The only other time the word “bloody” appears in this song is when she says “I make bloody moves” after dismissing her opponent on the level of status: “I’m a boss, you a worker.” Again, the same dynamic of the previous “bloody shoes” image is worked out here. Cardi B invokes this “bloody” image as a way to distinguish herself from her opponent on the basis of wealth. It is no coincidence, then, that the line “I make bloody moves” rhymes with another refrain in this song: “I make money move.” Cardi B here establishes a rhyme not only of sound, but of concepts, equating the function of money with the function of blood in this context.
Pay close attention to how I structured these posts. The first one is 253 words (the minimum length of a close reading assignment is 250 words). The response post is 117 words (the minimum for a response post is 100). Notice how the first post isn’t just a block of text; I divided it into two paragraphs. I used the first sentence to identify a specific literary device (in this case, a metaphor that also happens to be a visual image and an allusion) and made an argument for what it signifies in this particular work (wealth and violence). I use the rest of the post to back up my argument with further details from the lyrics.
Notice how I never said, “Cardi B is trying to…” I am not arrogant enough to assume that I know what is going on in any artist’s mind and say what they are or are not trying to do or what they want to do. I am just commenting on how the language itself functions, on what the words are doing, not on any authorial intent (see the Assignment Instructions & Expectations document). Whether an author meant to signify something with a literary device or not is irrelevant to the practice of close reading, which is why the attention to context and details here is so important. Sometimes an artist may be unaware of how particular devices may construct certain levels of meaning—anyone’s interpretation is still valid as long as it is backed up by concrete evidence in the text. This is also what opens up the discussion for possible counter-arguments.
Notice how I also didn’t analyze every word of the entire song. I ended up providing an interpretation of the whole song by just focusing on one specific image. Make sure that whatever single details you choose to highlight shed some insight into the overall work.
Now it’s your turn. Pick any song (please provide a link to the lyrics in your post) and do a close reading of any literary device in those lyrics using the Literary Survival Guide (stick to the devices listed under “Poetry” because song lyrics are a form of poetry).
This is also an exercise in learning how to respond to one another. Remember my rules about repetition (which I have outlined in the Assignment Instructions & Expectations document). Since I have already written about “Bodak Yellow,” you need to pick a different song for your own analysis, unless you are analyzing another literary device *and* nothing in your analysis overlaps with mine. You can always choose to write your 100-word response post to “Bodak Yellow,” but your 250-word close reading analysis must be a different song.
Make sure to read the full discussion thread at the time you are posting your work to make sure that you are not repeating anything else in the thread. If you are the first to post, you don’t need to worry about this. But you do need to check back and see what other people are posting so that you can come up with your response post.
Notice, too, how in my response post, I never wrote “I agree” or “I disagree”—I provided additional quotes to contextualize a pattern of the word “bloody” that was addressed in the original post. In this way, I provided an extra layer of analysis. This is the goal of a response post: not to reiterate the same point, but to either flesh it out with other detailed observations or to provide a counter-argument.
Song choice:
Metallica – Unforgiven 2 (https://genius.com/Metallica-the-unforgiven-ii-lyrics)
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