"Hey There Delilah"- Plain White T's
“Hey There Delilah”, by Plain White T’s is one of my
favorite songs, but today was the first time I understood the deeper meanings
that lay within. Listening closely and reading the lyrics, the song contains
many poetic devices. When looking at the lyrics to the song, the verses contain
a main rhyme scheme ABCBDDD.
For Example:
“Hey there
Delilah (A)
What's it like
in New York City? (B)
I'm a thousand
miles away (C)
But girl,
tonight you look so pretty (B)
Yes you do (D)
Times Square
can't shine as bright as you (D)
I swear it's
true” (D)
A refrain in
poetry is something that is repeated. In the song the chorus is repeated 3
times throughout, making it the refrain.
Oh it's what
you do to me
Oh it's what
you do to me
Oh it's what
you do to me
What you do to
me.”
When it comes
to stanza organization, every verse had a similar layout and almost identical
meter (syllable count). When analyzed, the layout of songwriting has a similar
layout as poetry.
The speaker of
the song is a person (songwriter) who’s singing to another person (Delilah) who
is in a long distance relationship talking about their future plans. Listen to
the song and you can tell they’re distanced from each other by the second line,
“What’s it like in New York City?” The tone of the song is romantic, but sad at
the same time. The song conveys emotion and feeling as the songwriter writes
about Delilah, who’s moved away, but wants her love. Towards the end of the
song, the listener realizes that maybe Delilah isn’t as in love as the songwriter
is, when the song states, “The world will never
ever be the same, / And you're to blame.” Other examples of figurative language
in the song include personification, metaphor and imagery. An example of personification
from the song is, “I’ll pay the bills with this guitar.” This example is
considered personification because the guitar is given human characteristics,
as a guitar is unable to pay the bills itself. Secondly, is the use of a metaphor. When the lyrics state, “Listen to
my voice, it’s my disguise,” it compares two unlike things without using the
words “like” or “as”. The songwriter compares the voice to a disguise making it
a metaphor. Another literary device found in the song would be alliteration.
This was easy to spot in the phrase “We can do Whatever We Want.” With a close
listen and paying attention to detail in the lyrics, it doesn’t take long to
realize the complexity of the song and the figurative language used to create
imagery in it.
The
content of “Hey There Delilah” is a love song wrote to Delilah. The purpose of
the song was to be romantic and draw the connection between the songwriter and
Delilah and convince her to keep faith and keep their love strong. A social
implication that may arise within the song is it really a guy writing the song
to a girl, as it could be a guy to guy or girl to girl. On a social aspect, we
assume it’s a guy writing to a girl. The reason I like this song so much is the
“catch” it has. The rhyme and rhythm that the songwriter used makes the lyrics
stuck in my head every time I hear it. In my opinion it would be near
impossible for another artist to cover this song, and make it as powerful and
the Plain White T’s made it. The message would still be the same, as a romantic
love song, but there’s only one person writing to Delilah and that was wrote by
the Plain White T’s.
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