“Poetry is the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken,” according to the staff of Dictionay. com (1). Another individual might argue that poetry, is indeed the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings (Wordsworth 1). One demands simple things of a poem; a poem must have a meaning, a logical message to society, an intellectual impact or an emotional impact, and lastly, some sort of rhyme scheme. While it is easy to say that the typical place for a poem, to be heard or seen, is in an English classroom setting read out loud by a teacher; poems are actually naturally found anywhere weather realized or not.
A very common place where poetry is found, but often overlooked, is in music. There is no doubt that poetry is found in music and music is poetry. It is unquestionable that the song “Imagine” by John Lennon is a form of poetry. It has meaning, a logical message to society, an emotional and intellectual impact, and a literary device, which subjectively, is poetry. John Lennon’s song is a perfect example of how an artist pours heart and soul into writing. “Imagine” is a very meaningful song as it was brought about during time during history.
The United States was fighting a war and unfortunately, it left thousands of innocent people dead. John Lennon wanted to spread the word about world peace without violence. John Lennon’s song tells a story. John Lennon asks the world to imagine a place where religion and possessions do not divide people “This song gives off a very strong, powerful, message however, is sugar-coated with a beautiful melody” (Sparkling teacher 1). John Lennon gives the world a set of steps on how to stop violence with peace, with each verse in the song is one of those steps.
The chorus of the song is the most important, powerful, part of the song and has true meaning. The message of the chorus is for people who do not think that Lennon’s goal is possible. It is interesting in the way that Lennon is just going to hope that people listening to the song will understand the message and make the world a better place (Sparkling teacher 1). This approach is very powerful as, it is practicing what the rest of the song preaches: peace and understanding (Sparkling teacher 1).
The song has a meaning and as readers, it is easy to understand why John wrote the poetic song, to stop world violence and promote peace. “Imagine” can easily be defined as poetry as it has the key element needed to be defined as poetry, ‘meaning’. How can something be poetic without giving an impression to an audience, or even more so, not telling a strong message to society? Poetry must have the element of telling a story or saying a message in order for something to be considered poetry. In Lennon’s “Imagine” immediately, it is easy to identify the message Lennon is trying to get through.
John Lennon wrote this song to spread the word that the world does not need to hate and kill, and that it is possible for individuals to live in harmony and peace. In the song, one can listen to the actual words of the song and identify what is needed to live a different life and get along with others and work for peace. John Lennon’s song not only tells a message to society, it also impacted society intellectually and emotionally-which is an important factor in poetry. The song literally made the listeners imagine and think about a world without war, fighting, and hatred.
The song touched readers emotionally in an optimistic way, as well as in a pessimistic way on how one individual can make a difference; in addition to how greedy and hateful the world truly is. Aside from the emotional impact of the song, “Imagine” also impacted and informed readers intellectually on the Vietnam War on how many people were unfortunately killed, and as well as maybe how horrible the world was in at that time and John Lennon was trying to point out what measures can be taken to prevent war and other sad realities (Examiner. com 1).
To conclude, the last requirement for something to be poetic is that, there has to be a type of a literary device. In “Imagine” there is, repetition, antithesis and symbolism. The repetition in the song is with word “Imagine”, it is repeated five times and as well as the “Imagine all the people” three times. The repetition is used to emphasize the importance of serious topics that Lennon wants to address with society. The word aids in allowing individuals to have a visual picture regarding Lennon’s concerns with mankind. Furthermore, antithesis also exists in “Imagine”.
For example, in the first line of the song “Imagine there’s no heaven” and one line following, “Imagine there’s no hell” is a strong contrast and comparison in making the words come together. As a final point, symbolism is highly present in the song. The entire song symbolizes encouraging peace and the world coming together as one, as Lennon mentions “Imagine there’s no countries”. In conclusion, the song has all requirements under the literary device category for a piece of to be classified as a poem. John Lennon’s “Imagine” is a prime example of poetry that was put into music which, clearly had lots of emotion and meaning behind it.
All key elements that are required for the right definition of poetry were revealed. It is simple to say that music can very easily be defined as poetry as Lennon did not intentionally write this piece as poetry but, as a song and all elements were still present as a poem. “It is written in the simplest piano key, and uses simple lyrics to construct a world in which people do not fight over anything-they just get along. Lennon may have been a dreamer, but once you have heard this song, you’ll probably count yourself as a dreamer, too. ” (Shoop University, Inc 1).
