Allusions In Poetry

Through the ages, poetry was a work of art. Today, poems continue in the form of songs, my goal is to convince you that the song, Wrong Side of Heaven, is a modern piece of poetry. By the usage of allusions, all types of figurative language, mostly metaphors, and that there can be a thesis written on it, we can support the reasoning of lyrical songs being pure poetry. In most classic pieces of poetry, such as The Raven, there are allusions to different things, like the following: religious, historical, and mythological. In this song, it makes religious allusions, talking of hell, heaven, the devil, and God. It states, “I spoke to God today…” or, ”I saw the devil today…” and later it talks of heaven and hell. If these aren’t religious allusions, then I’m not a student. In most other poetry that references the religious, they use it as a main component in the song; such is the case in this song.

Plenty of oxymorons, and metaphors, like where it says, ”righteous side of hell” or the phrase, ” I’m not made of stone”. One was an oxymoron, while the other a metaphor. In the metaphor, he says he isn’t made of stone, which may mean many things, but I interpret it in a way that means he can’t withstand everything that he is put up against. Another metaphor is when he says, “Arms wide open, I stand alone” I think it means he is alone but will welcome any help or anyone, mainly because earlier in the song he talks of disappointing God, and even the devil says he didn’t cause it. You can see the amounts of symbolism in this song that could easily make it a