Hallelujah

This song shows major romantic poetry components and although is a modern tune, is actually closer in relation to the romantics than may appear. Each aspect described below has shown the specific qualities of the song and how it relates back to poets in the past.

Leonard Cohen demonstrates a strong interest in the common man with his famous song Hallelujah. Every person has struggles and the song shows many of these. Because of this, we also see the celebration of the individual in the song. The song is about an individual’s story. The lines “Maybe there's a God above, All I've ever learned from love, Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you And it's not a cry that you hear at night, It's not somebody who's seen the light It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah.” This line shows a common struggle among many people. When everything starts to go wrong, many loose faith and hope. The lines “Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you, She tied you to her kitchen chair” are talking about this individual becoming infatuated with a women but it comes with compromise and he gives up his power. We see the ups and downs of his story and the emotions and other components all put together really put together strong feeling in the song. Cohen emphasises that even when someone feel alone and helpless, they aren't the only ones. The focus on the individual in the song really makes it powerful, and that is one of the reasons why romantic poetry is powerful too.

There is a lot of imagination in this song. It starts out by saying “Well I heard there was a secret chord, That David played and it pleased the Lord”. It shows how creative the artist is. He could have just said that it was a very good song but instead he made images of a person playing to God come to mind. Also when he sings “She tied you to her kitchen chair

She broke your throne and she cut your hair, And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah” it invokes your imagination. It makes you see this actually happening, and it is a very clever and imaginative way to say that she betrayed you. Things lyrics make you imagine these events in your mind.

Lots of romantic poets share similarities with Leonard Cohen. One example is William Wordsworth, who also wrote about love. Wordsworth’s poem, She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways, talks about his loss and loneliness and his love for a women.

Hallelujah is also full of strong emotion. You can tell that Cohen has very strong feelings and the song came from what he truly feels. This is showed by the lyrics “And it's not a cry that you hear at night It's not somebody who's seen the light It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah” because the words in the song are descriptive and full of emotion. The whole song is based around his feeling and thoughts.

There is hope for everyone

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is a well known artist who is known for her crazy outfits and eccentric music. Did you know that her songs match many characteristics of romantic poetry and can be directly related to them?

For example, her song Born This Way has nearly every aspect of romantic poetry included in it. One major theme of romantic poetry is the celebration of the individual which is definitely a huge theme of the song. Gaga celebrates self love and encourages you to be yourself, despite your flaws, beliefs, or anything else. This is shown especially when she sings, “I’m beautiful in my way, ‘Cause God makes no mistakes, I’m on the right track, baby, I was born this way” and “Don’t hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you’re set.” Gaga is a firm believer that everyone is perfect in their own way.

Another aspect of her song is the interest in the common man. She not only encourages people to love themselves, but to accept everyone around them. You can assume this from her lyrics “We are all born superstars,” and “Give yourself prudence

And love your friends.” You can really tell that she feels all people should be equal.

Gaga also conveys a strong sense of emotion throughout her song. She expresses her belief with strong and powerful lyrics, and the tone of the song makes it seem positive. One example of this is when Gaga says, “Whether you're broke or evergreen, You're black, white, beige, chola descent”. She goes even further into the diversity of people through saying, “No matter gay, straight, or bi,Lesbian, transgendered life.” She believes in acceptance and that everyone, no matter their race or orientation, is beautiful and should be themselves.

Even though Lady Gaga is often seen as a pop sensation, she is a lot more like romantic poets than meets the eye. In fact, I particularly associate her with William Wordsworth. Many may not see this connection, but in his poem, Lines Written In Early Spring, Wordsworth expresses his unhappiness with men and how he believes they have doomed themselves. Through the line, “What man has made of man,” he talks about the fact that men have made themselves very flawed. Although Gaga does not directly state it, she wishes men to accept each other and change their views on minorities. Both Wordsworth and Gaga want a change in humanity. Both use elements of romantic poetry in their works of art.

Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas have many genres, including hip-hop, pop, and dance-pop, but one genre that doesn’t really come to mind is romantic. One song that has all the characteristics of romantic poetry is Where is the Love?

In Where is the Love,  the artists of the song talk about all the struggles in the world and how they can be solved with just a little love. Throughout this song they use imagination, they use strong emotions, have interest in the common man and childhood, celebrate the individual, and have awe in nature. The lyrics “Nations droppin' bombs” and “Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones” shows not only imagination but strong emotion too. It gives you such detail of what’s going on that it makes you imagine those things that are happening in the world. Doesn’t it give you so much grief just to think about it? What really shows the interest in childhood are the lines “Negative images is the main criteria, infecting the young minds faster than bacteria, kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema.” These lyrics talk out how the negative images that children see in the world is causing them to become corrupted, and later it says we can stop it by spreading love.

Celebration of the individual may not seem apparent, but it is there. Some lyrics that show it are, “Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity, Whatever happened to the fairness and equality, Instead of spreading love we're spreading animosity, lack of understanding, leading us away from unity.” While this may be taken as criticism of humanity it actually celebrates it too. It talks about how we used to all these good things and all we need to do is understand each other and we will stop spreading hate. Also when it states “Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight” it shows us that all a person needs to do is love and it will fix the problems we have caused. It shows that one person can help change the world for better if the spread love.

We can also see the influence of nature in the song. While it doesn’t go into incredible detail about flowers or trees it does go into detail about our world. It talks about how we only have “One world, one world (That's all we got), One world, one world.” By saying this it’s in awe of nature because it's the only thing keeping us alive and we can’t destroy it with our hate.
William Blake is a specific romantic poet that we think would probably relate to the song. He wanted to create social change in the world in the minds of the people. He wanted to "spread the love" too.

The Black Eyed Peas embody all of the aspects of romantic poetry from the industrial revolution because they are criticizing our way of life and making us feel something within the song.

Demons

Imagine Dragons is an amazing rock band. They use their imagination and have tons of emotion that we can all feel as listeners. Their well known song, “Demons,” happens to have a huge connection to the romantic style of poetry from the 1800s.

In “Demons,” they sing about struggles in life and how people hide their problems. They use the imagination of the listener to paint an image of demons in a person’s eyes when they talk about if you look deep into someone’s eyes, you may see their real problems. We also feel strong emotion in the song, a key component of romantic poetry. Not only do they use strong emotions to convey the message, they also examine emotion itself through the song when they talk about hidden feelings or traits in humans as in the line “We still are made of greed.”

The biggest connection that we see to romantic poetry is the interest in the common man and individual. People can relate to the song because it is about struggles in life and hiding your feelings through these hard times. “It’s where my demons hide” talks about hidden “demons” that are inside of everyone. We all know this experience as an individual, and the song empowers us by reminding us that we aren’t alone in life. Other people have struggles too. While the song doesn’t talk about nature as the romantics did, the song still connects with romantic poetry very strongly in the other components.

John Keats is a particular romantic poet that relates to the song “Demons.” In “Ode To A Nightingale,” he expresses his struggles and sees the nightingale as so happy, just like Imagine Dragons vocalize their struggles and see “saints made of gold” around them. “Demons” is a very powerful song full of emotion that tells the story of all of us. We all face struggles and see people that are better than us, but in the end we need to release these hurtful emotions, the “demons”, and let the people around us help.

Imagine

John Lennon is known worldwide for his fantastic rock and roll music that we all enjoy. Most of us don’t know that his work actually contains key components that are associated with romantic poetry! Some of his most popular songs contain all five major components of romantic poetry which are: the importance of imagination, a strong sense of emotion, an interest in the common man, the celebration of the individual, and an awe of nature.

Lennon celebrates the individual and

encourages everyone to "imagine."

“Imagine” is a very moving song by John Lennon that effectively encompasses the ideas of romantic poetry. Starting off, the title of the song is “Imagine,” which is already encouraging you to use your imagination to envision this new world that we can create. The song has lines such as “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world…” From this one stanza, we see an interest in the common man, the celebration of an individual, and a strong sense of feeling or emotion. It speaks to us as the common man and celebrates the individuals who can make a change in the world. He references the people a lot. This is exemplified in the lyrics, “and the world will be as one” and “imagine all the people living for today.” These quotes talk about everyone as a whole and their contribution to humanity. His work tends to have a strong tone that we can relate to by using the word “imagine.” It really made us think about the world and appreciate it for what it is. Instead of just an awe of nature, John Lennon is encouraging you to have an awe of the world. He suggests a world without cares, a world where everyone can appreciate the world in its fullness. His songs are very much like the romantic poetry that makes you feel a connection to the art.

As a whole, John Lennon’s songs tend to have down to earth, meaningful lyrics which have many similarities to the romantics from the 1800’s. His songs are very well known and appreciated around the world, but many don’t detect the significance of these lyrics. The strong emotions and reflection on the world in “Imagine “ makes it possible for us to compare John Lennon to the great romantic poets.