#5- Poetry Critique

Say

By:John Mayer

Take all of your wasted honor

Every little past frustration

Take all of your so-called problems,

Better put 'em in quotations

Say what you need to say [x8]

Walking like a one man army

Fighting with the shadows in your head

Living out the same old moment

Knowing you'd be better off instead,

If you could only ...

Say what you need to say [x8]

Have no fear for giving in

Have no fear for giving over

You'd better know that in the end

Its better to say too much

Then never say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking

And your faith is broken

Even as the eyes are closing

Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say [x24]

1.) There are many reasons why I selected this song to write and reflect about. First off, I love John Mayer and I like how he connects some of his songs to how he is feeling, like most other artists. I feel like in this song, John Mayer is obviously trying to express that he or somebody he knows couldn't stick up to somebody greater than them and "say that they need to say". The title of this song clearly fits with the main idea because the song is talking about saying what you feel and saying it in a way that you can release all the frustration that you may have been holding in. Towards the end of the song I feel that he changes his thinking about a little bit and is trying to express that when you life somebody you should open you heart up to them and basically "say what you want to say".

2.)  In This song, John Mayer doesn't use that much in the way of poetic devices.  But John does shows a numerous amount of consonances.  For example, when he relates the words head and instead.  Also the words broken and open rhyme too.  I like the imagery that John uses when he wrote "Even if your hands are shaking. And your faith is broken. Even as the eyes are closing.  Do it with a heart wide open".  From this you can picture a man who is nervous or week to say what he feels is on his mind and maybe has really been bugging him by how he shakes.  You can also see a man who is sad when he closes his eyes.  All of these poetic devices influence the poem because they allow the listeners/readers to formulate what this person in the song is going through.  From reading/listening to the song one can come to the conclusion that the person in the song is probably shy, has a past history that affected him, and maybe becomes nervous to "say what he needs to say".  This song gives me a happy feeling because I feel as is John Mayer is trying to tell those people who don't stick up for themselves in a certain situations to do what you think is right and speak your mind if feel hurt.  

3.)  I think that the tone at first starts off to be a mad tone because the song talks about being frustrated and dark pasts ("shadows").  Towards the end of the song, the tone changes to a happier and more confident tone when they finally realize to "open up their heart" and say the things they feel bothered them in the past/present.