“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.
OH I HAVE HEARD THIS SONG YOU'RE RIGHT
ReplyDeleteOk also Vinny, on first glance, this analysis doesn't look full. I don't even have to read it to know it's missing a solid 80% of it. ;) Once I get past that part, the start you had to this analysis was good, I follow what you were getting at. However, I think it could have been stronger if you separate the paragraph where you talk about diction and structure - - it leads to a slightly unorganized appeal because you go from talking about diction to talking about structure to then again discussing diction.
DeleteNow, according to the rubric, I'd give this a Band 5 for having some relevant points about content, your understanding of the song, and your failures to identify key points just because of the plain lack of words. However, I can understand this isn't finished. I see that. So, if you were to continue your analysis in the same way and with the same perspective, I think this would be a Band 2 because you're consistent, it has good structure, you analyze the text and use examples, and you were conveying the start of a clear argument.
So far, I think you're missing a lot (take that as a joke not as an insult), but I think you could mention the diction that leads to a girlish appeal. All her words are very young, free spirited, and carefree and I think that is an important part of this song. Good post Vin but finish it!!!
Vinny, I like the song you decided to use but I wish you went into further detail with your rhetorical analysis. I would have to give you a Band 5, mark 4 due to the lack of comments you made on the lyrics in the song. You did make some slight understanding comments about the song. Everything would change if you continued to write more in this exact way with a lot more to back your points up with. You could also structure this rhetorical analysis strong to make this rhetorical analysis have a greater effect. When you said "...there are only two unique verses in the entire song" you just left it at that, you didn't even mention what those two unique verses were. You just left it alone.
ReplyDeleteVincent! Finish your work silly. It's quite difficult to grade your analysis if you stop in the middle of a sentence. However, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt since I know you'll get it done and you usually have pretty great rhetorical analysis blogs. From what we have here you'd probably get a band 6 because all you're really doing is mentioning the different devices used in the song and not even really giving examples. Despite that, what you have is fairly good. you do show some appreciation of the text and the devices used to make it an effective song. You are also fairly consistent with you structure, but you do jump between diction and structure, so that might dock you a few points. I think that if you continue this and delve into the effect these devices give the audience and why the writer used them, then this would be a great analysis. But because of your lack of words and only giving the grader a taste of the analysis to come, you wouldn't receive a great grade. Once you finish this, though, I know it'll be a high band 2 because you have a fairly good start. Finish it soon so Scalia doesn't kill you!!
ReplyDeleteWhere is your thesis? your support is the quoting of lyrics and analyzation of them. Also it is written very choppy and that makes it very hard to focus as well as grade. Band 5.... logos,ethos,pathos?
ReplyDeleteThe song uses imagery to engage listeners/readers. This method appeals to pathos as the imagery engulfs the brain.
Based on the AICE exam rubric, I would grade this rhetorical analysis as a band 2. Your analysis had a strong structure that was used to convey a clear argument pertaining to the effectiveness of the song, “Kiss Me” By Sixpence None the Richer. Your analysis was written in a way which showed awareness of the rhetorical elements being used in the song, such as imagery and tone. You were then able to take those elements and relate them to the song itself all while using specific examples from the song to support your claims. You were also able to relate the content to the structure, audience, purpose, and main aims of the song with explanations to support it. Overall, your analysis was well done, and it fared well to the Cambridge rubric.
ReplyDeleteMoving away from the AICE rubric, I want to address what you may have missed in your analysis. Even though your analysis was thorough with the descriptions of the elements you did address, I noticed something that you failed to address in your analysis. This song can be seen as being appealing to the audience’s sense of pathos. Considering the fact that this is a romantic song, the love filled lyrics and tone can make the audience feel emotionally connected with the song. Whenever the audience gets emotionally invested into a piece of work, the creator of that piece of work has succeeded in reaching out to their audience. This would have been a good point to address in your analysis considering your analysis did seem to cut itself short.
I would give this rhetorical analysis a band 2. I say this because you achieved the task and had a strong structure. I did't give you a band 1 because your conclusion was week.
ReplyDeleteI feel that you could have addressed the line, "strike up the band and make the fireflies dance." This line could be representative of how she feels when she is being kissed. Fireflies could be the same as feeling butterflies in your stomach.
weak*
DeleteI am not even in this class, but I took time out of my day to read it. That may have been the biggest mistake, possibly since your conception. I had to look away multiple times to wipe the blood out of my eyes. This was hands down the worst thing I have every laid my poor eyes upon. Wow Vincent, this is horrible, my eyes hurt, and it literally made me sick to my stomach. Way to go, you just ruined my night with this absolute abomination of a blog post. Band 5, complete and utter poopy.
ReplyDeletePlease destroy the computer that you wrote this blog on, it has gone through enough suffering having your pudgy sausage link fingers hammer out this blog.
DeleteLet me tell you, if I could get sausages as nice as Vinny's fingers, you would be looking at one happy boy
DeleteBased on the rubric,I would give this a band 3. While you give structure, your ideas are very general and are not much deeper than the surface. While it is broad, it is also thorough and the vague points you make are still covered well. Overall, decent job on the blog.
ReplyDeleteOne of the big things you missed was the songs appeal to pathos. A song about love is bound to relate closely to emotion and there should be clarity that pathos is the target of the song.
I also think that you say unnecessary words to take up space ad it just makes it hard to read
DeleteI would have given you a band 2, mark 10. You showed a strong structure with a consistent evaluation of the song itself. You consistently evaluated soaps. There were a few technical errors, I feel you could have addressed rhetorical appeals.
ReplyDeleteThis blog was actually really well written. After hearing Scalia bash it, I was expecting some half-assed blog, but you gave it a 3/4 ass. The reason I say this is because you could've really expanded on some of the points that you wrote about, however you were really good at keeping this blog engaging, and keeping the information fresh and well structured.
ReplyDeleteI can't really say you missed a lot except for the length, and if the length was there than this would be a band 1, the appeal to logos and ethos and pathos is just something that would've lengthened it, but I don't think it would've improved the blog as the blog was very good. I'm just saying that this would've been a band 1 regardless if you had that or not if the length was there.
Though the blog was well written, it was not in depth or a thorough analysis at all. I would have to give it a Band 3. You did hit major topics such as logos, ethos, and pathos, which strengthens your analysis. Though this paper did not meet the word requirement which would drop your grade significantly. You definitely showed strong structure and voice throughout, but I wish you went more in depth and hit more topics.
ReplyDelete