Pop Rhetoric: Our Favorites
User-submitted examples of rhetorical devices in pop songs
Recently we set a challenge to our followers on Twitter: each week we'd give them a different rhetorical device and they'd send us their favorite song lyrics that use it.
Introducing #PopRhetoric!
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) September 14, 2021
In this space we will:
- introduce different rhetorical devices each week
- ask you for your favorite song lyrics that illustrate them
The results have been (of course) stellar. Here are some of our favorites that we've received so far.
Definition:
the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables
An Example:
"Little old lady got mutilated late last night"
— Warren Zevon, "Werewolves of London"
Our Favorites:
“Helplessly hoping
her harlequin hovers nearby”
— Crosby, Stills & Nash, "Helplessly Hoping"
submitted by Mark
"I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king"
— Frank Sinatra, "That's Life"
submitted by Toi
“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”
— Joni Mitchell, "Big Yellow Taxi"
submitted by Barbara
Definition:
repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses
An Example:
"I got rhythm
I got music
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?"
— George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, "I Got Rhythm"
Our Favorites:
"You thought I wouldn't grow without you, but I'm wiser
You thought that I'd be helpless without you, but I'm smarter
You thought that I'd be stressed without you, but I'm chillin'
You thought I wouldn't sell without you, sold nine million"
— Destiny's Child, "Survivor"
submitted by Joan
"For you, dear, I was born
For you I was raised up
For you I’ve lived and for you I will die
For you I am dying now"
— Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Far From Me"
submitted by Nell
"Maybe I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time
Maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you
Maybe I'm amazed at the the way you pulled me out of time
And hung me on a line
Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you
— Paul McCartney, "Maybe I'm Amazed"
submitted by Ben
Definition:
a word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing in order to show or suggest that they are similar
An Example:
"I am a rock
I am an island"
— Simon & Garfunkel, "I Am a Rock"
Our Favorites:
"Your heart was glass, I dropped it
Champagne problems"
— Taylor Swift, "champagne problems"
submitted by Janine
“All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall”
— Pink Floyd, "Another Brick in the Wall"
submitted by downinBowery
"You're an accident waiting to happen
You're a piece of glass left there on a beach"
— U2, "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?"
submitted by Astra
Definition:
the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words usually in such a manner that it applies to each in a different sense
An Example:
"You held your breath and the door for me"
— Alanis Morissette, "Head Over Feet"
Our Favorites:
“She blew my nose and then she blew my mind”
— The Rolling Stones, "Honky Tonk Women"
submitted by Craig
"I'm a thousand miles from anywhere
My pocketbook and my heart both just got stolen"
— Jewel, "Down So Long"
submitted by Elizabeth
Definition:
an inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases
An Example:
"With my mind on my money and my money on my mind"
— Snoop Dogg, "Gin and Juice"
Our Favorites:
"Don't waste your time or time will waste you"
— Muse, "Knights of Cydonia"
submitted by Brent
"If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with"
— Stephen Stills, "Love the One You're With"
submitted by Ashwani
Definition:
a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by 'like' or 'as'
An Example:
"In the way those eyes I've always loved illuminate this place
Like a trashcan fire in a prison cell
Like the searchlights in the parking lots of hell"
— The Mountain Goats, "Old College Try"
Our Favorites:
"Like a bird on a wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir,
I have tried in my way to be free"
— Leonard Cohen, "Bird on the Wire"
submitted by Egbert
"Smooth like butter,
Like a criminal undercover"
— BTS, "Butter"
submitted by cpnqn
"You fill up my senses
Like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime
Like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert
Like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses
Come fill me again"
— John Denver, "Annie's Song"
submitted by Monse
