Song Analysis: “How Come, How Long” Essay, Research Paper

Song

How Come, How Long

1 There was a girl I used to know

2 She was oh so beautiful

3 But she’s not here anymore

4 She had a college degree

5 Smart as anyone could be

6 She had so much to live for

7 But she fell in love

8 With the wrong kinda man

9 He abused her love and treated her so bad

10 There was not enough education in her world

11 That could save the life of this little girl

12 How come, how long

13 It’s not right, it’s so wrong

14 Do we let it just go on

15 Turn our backs and carry on

16 Wake up, for it’s too late

17 Right now, we can’t wait

18 She won’t have a second try

19 Open up your hearts

20 As well as your eyes

21 She tried to give a cry for help

22 She even blamed things on herself

23 But no one came to her aid

24 Nothing was wrong as far as we could tell

25 That’s what we’d like to tell ourselves

26 But no, it wasn’t that way

27 So she fell in love

28 With the wrong kinda man

29 And she paid with her life

30 For loving that man

31 So we cannot ignore

32 We must look for the signs

33 And maybe next time we could save somebody’s life

By

Babyface Featuring Stevie Wonder

Poem

Song Be Delicate

1 Let your song be delicate.

2 The skies declare

3 No war – the eyes of lovers

4 Wake everywhere.

5 Let you voice be delicate.

6 How faint a thing

7 Is love, little crying

8 Under the spring

9 Let your song be delicate.

10 The flowers can hear:

11 Too well they know the tremble

12 of the hollow year.

13 Let your voice be delicate.

14 The bees are home:

15 All their day’s love is sunken

16 Safe in the comb

17 Let your song be delicate.

18 Sing no loud hymn:

19 Death is abroad…. Oh, the black season!

20 The deep – the dim!

By

J. Shaw Neilson

A very difficult type of literature is poetry. Poetry is very hard to understand especially when students or anyone is analyzing it under pressure or being forced. When poetry is not being forced to study, it is generally taken more serious and it is easier for poetry to be understood.

Poetry can be linked to music in many ways. Some ways can be by the type of genre, lyrics, emotion and pictures. Emotion is the easiest way to relate two pieces of information together. This is the easiest way because no one will feel exactly the same as you.

The poem that I have chosen to go with the song is ‘How come, How long’ by ‘Babyface featuring Stevie Wonder’ and for my poem is ‘Song be delicate’ by ‘J. Shaw Neilson’.

The poem and the song is linked by love, and death. In the poem it says that there should be lovers everywhere, and death is just so open, because you can die in many ways and in the song it says that this girl falls in love with the wrong kind of man and she paid with her life for loving that man.

This poem can be interpreted so many ways because the poem uses open words which can be taken in more than one way. The song that I have I think can only be taken one way because it is like a story in a way.

In order to show you that a poem can be read in more than one way, I will show you two different treading on the poem ‘Song be delicate’ by ‘J. Shaw Neilson’.

First Reading

Line 1, means that let the words that you speak be gentle and sentimental. Line 2-3 means that there should be happiness every where instead of war. Line 3-4 means that lovers comes out from where they are when there is happiness and no war.

Line 5 is the same as line 1. Line 6-8 means that love can be taken seriously and not seriously. It depends o how you take it on the result. If you take it not seriously you will find that you relationship will breakdown and you will be crying if you wanted to take a seriously.

Line 9 is the same as Line 5 and 1. This part of the poem means that all different kinds of people can understand different kinds of people can understand different kinds of things.

Line 13 is the same as line 9,5 and 1. Line 14-16 means that when the people and go home their love is not appreciated enough, but they feel safe at homes.

Line 17 is the same as line 13,9,5 and 1. Line 18-20 means that death is open in many ways that you can die, there should not be no one to be happy about death. Death is a time when you should be thankful for who they were.

Second Reading

Line 1 means that the person that you love is being protected. Line 2-4 means that there should be no war in the world so there is lovers everywhere.

Line 5 is the same as line 1 means that love can be taken lightly and if so there will not many feelings being hurt as if one person out of the relationship did and the other one didn’t.

Line 9 means the same as line 5 and 1. Line 10 means that someone that you think is not listening to you could actually be. 11-12 can mean that the people listening to you knows what is going to happen in the next year.

Line 13 is the same as 9,5 and 1. Line 14 means that your love one is home for the day. Line 15 means that all their love that they have is bottled up in their hearts and they feel safe with their loved ones around.

Line 17 is the same as 13,9,5 and 1. Line 18-20 means that death should not be celebrated, it is a sad time. We should remember them by their impact on us.

This concludes with the two different readings of the same poem. Now I will analyze the song, My song is ‘How come, How long’ by ‘Babyface featuring Stevie Wonder’.

First Reading

Line 1-3 means, there was a person that knew a girl that was so beautiful but now she has died. Line 4-8 means, this girls has died. Line 4-8 means this girls that hoes died has so much to live for because she had a college degree smart as any one could be. Since she fell in the love with the wrong kind of man this is what happened. Line 9-11 means that her boy friend treated her so bad and abused her love. She lacked the information that could save the life of this little girl.

Line 12-13 means that it is not right what the boy friend did tot his girl. Line 14-15 means that we could let this go on by not remembering what has happened. Line 16-20 means that it would be not right if we let just go on because she won’t have a second try. Line 21-23 means that no one wen tot her aid there was nothing wrong, but that was only what they told themselves. Line 27-33 means since she fell in love with this man she gave up her life for loving that man, we cannot ignore what has just happened and next time if we can see what is going to happen we could save somebody’s life.

That is the analysis of my song. The comparisons between the song and the poem would be the themes – love and death. Love and Death is normally one of the most common themes in poetry and in songs.

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