“Kiss Me” By Sixpence None the Richer
Kiss me out of the bearded barley,
Lightly, beside the green, green grass
Swing, swing, swing the spinning step
You'll wear those shoes and I will wear that dress
Oh, Kiss me beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out of the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band, and make the fireflies dance
Silvermoon's sparkling,
So kiss me
Kiss me down by the broken tree house
Swing me, upon its hanging tire
Bring, bring, bring your flowered hat
We'll take the trail marked on your father's map
Oh, Kiss me beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out of the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band, and make the fireflies dance
Silvermoon's sparkling,
So kiss me
Oh, Kiss me beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out of the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band, and make the fireflies dance
Silvermoon's sparkling,
So kiss me
So kiss me...
So kiss me
There are many different ways to write out song lyrics to create a piece a music. However, lyrics are not the same as music. If anything lyrics are like poetry. The words of the song are able to come together fluidly and smooth to create this sense of comfort and aloofness. There are no hard breaks or unexpected turns in the lyrics. Nothing too exciting or new is used in order to make the audience feel comfortable and welcomed. The structure is quite uniform throughout the entire piece. Unlike many other songs, the chorus is repeated three times and there are only two unique verses in the entire song. This specific choice to only allow certain flow and structure adds to the calming nature of the song. In the chorus, the singer asks her presumed lover to “kiss [her] beneath the milky twilight”, the word milky in this sentence is an extremely smooth word and since it's in the chorus, the part of the song repeated the most often, the audience becomes the most comfortable with this line as it is also the first line in the chorus. The writer’s choice of diction effectively gives the song a calming and welcoming nature.
Imagery in songwriting is the most prominently used and most important component of figurative language. Without descriptions of feelings or events songs will feel empty and emotionless. The songwriter here uses the description of a night sky and atmosphere. The fireflies are out and the "moonlit floor" of twilight. This specific time of night is considered the most romantic, especially when sitting in the moonlight. As this is a love song the writer needs to be able to create a very romantic atmosphere for the audience to latch on to and feel emotion. Which brings us to the writer's appeal to pathos. A good love song needs to be able to get the audience emotionally invested in what the singer is saying. If the song doesn't tug at your heart strings then the song isn't accomplishing what it set out to do. "Oh, kiss me beneath the milky twilight." is what I would consider the most romantic line in this song. It uses very smooth and calm diction to exclaim the writer's love for her lover. Without creating the proper atmosphere the appeal to pathos would not work the way the writer intended for it to.
The tone of the song is meant to be warm and romantic. A tone is the combination of all the author's use of rhetorical devices and appeals. The writer is able to achieve this through their diction and use of imagery. Kiss Me is aimed at the writer's lover and trying to convince them of their love and desire. If the author had come across angry then the appeal to pathos would have been lost. The tone of a good love song is inviting and emotional. Without proper diction the author would have failed in this case. The lyrics are quite simplistic in certain cases, when the singer tells her lover to "kiss [her]" the writer is being blunt and straightforward, but that is not what the song is necessarily about. The writer is telling the audience the details of how she wants it to happen, not just what she wants.
This song is a beautiful expression of the writer's love and devotion to her lover and how she wants him to make her feel. None of this would have been possible without the proper diction, imagery, and tone the author tried to achieve and succeeded.
