Presenting song as poem - Essay Example

A song can be seen as a poem when it has a strong message for its audience. Nowadays many singers or bands look for the immediate success so they choose facile songs with common lyrics that will not last through the years. "Dear mama" is a song by 2 Pac and it is worth to be interpreted because it has a strong message said in a very clear way. The hip-hop and rap music usually let aside the melodious part in favor of some messages related to the daily life and problems such as: drugs, family, friendship, rules, jail etc.

"Dear mama" is an important song because, even if it has in its center mother's image, he frames it with the other sides of life, aspects that led him to write the song. This kind of music usually uses a simple vocabulary, and known words ."Dear mama" opens with a statement that shows there will be not so many sophisticated words: "You are appreciated". So, the message and the theme of the poem are stated very clear and directly. In this case this sentence , according to the style of music is equivalent to all the literary devices used in other poems or songs.

Even this thing happens it does not mean this song has less suggestive meaning. The word choice is much more related to the events that influenced the speaker's attitude or feelings about his mother: the problems from school, with the police, Thanksgiving Day. The speaker uses the blacks' dialect or the street language for showing an affiliation to a group. Here his mother is shown as an icon, "black queen", "sweet lady", but she also has a terrestrial side, understanding and helping him. Being a straight song the figurative language is not so much used , but it can still be found some literary devices.

At the beginning of the text the speaker makes a simile between his family and other ones: "Over tha years we wuz poorer than tha other little kids", his condition being much poorer. It can be understood from this that the mother's role was greater in these circumstances and the appreciation for her very big, thing demonstrated trough the alliteration of some verses: "But tha plan is ta show ya that I understand/You are appreciated./Laaaaady, don't cha know we luv ya/Sweeeet Laaaady, place no one above ya/Sweeeet Laaaady, don't cha know we luv ya/.

" These is the refrain and they are like a symbol or a lait-motif of the song: lady is a more formal word which implies a certain royalty and sweet is used in familiar circles to express affection. There are some metaphors in the text: "hell" which refers to the hard way of living, "black queen" that can be interpreted as a metaphor for a very loved person, but also can be seen as a symbol for mother, "diamond necklace" is a metaphor for all the gifts the rapper did to his mother, hoping that he will recompense all the love given.

Diamond necklace is a metaphor for love and appreciation.The rhyme in this song is identical: "hell/cell", woman/man, me/me, face/place, and intermittent , following each line. According to the rhythm the most suggestive is the definition made to rap: "rhythm and poetry". Indeed this style concentrates on the message and poetry. The speaker in this song is the singer itself, 2 Pac, and it can be said that he meditates about past events , but at the same time refers to one particular individual, his mother.

This person is or should be the center of everyone's life , but especially in this case she was the only person that stood near the rapper. It cannot be said that a certain episode occasioned this song , but an amount of events, actually all his life.The fact that the rapper thanks his mother and remembers all these hard times reveals that he was developing at a human being and now he reached a higher level. The most suggestive way of thanking his mother is through his songs, and in this way others will find out his story(an universal thanks and recognition).

The rapper recounts past and sad events that had a negative impact on him, but at the same time helped him to see life differently. Now, rememorizing them helps him understand better which are the valuable things in life. The song is composed of three stanzas and three refrains , alternatively arranged, the sound is confused in this case with the rhythm.At the first look the poem was seen as a superficial one, full of dialect terms that it moved away the reader or the hearer. Looking in its depths it can be found many profound and symbolic meaning and the image about it changes very much, succeeding to create a brand new idea about songs in general and rap music in particularWorks Cited 2 Pac Dear Mama Lyrics, http://www.loglar.com/song.phpid=2989