The Perseverance and Triumph of Beethoven The poem “Beethoven” written by Shayne Koyczan, a Canadian spoken word artist, is about Beethoven and his upbringing. Shayne Koyczan creates an emotional and powerful poem, weaving Beethoven's experiences with his own. Koyczan uses his storytelling to create a journey for the readers. During Beethoven’s childhood, his dad abuses him and constantly berates him telling him he is not good enough. Beethoven never finds validation and is constantly overworking himself to the point of making his fingers bleed. In a short span of time, he gradually loses his hearing, an extremely large part of being a composer but his determination still comes through. The theme of this poem is the importance of perseverance, …show more content…
Not good enough. So he played softly. Not good enough. So he played strongly. Not good enough. (Koyczan 13-18) The use of anaphoras helps establish the theme because of his persistence. Beethoven is refusing to let anything that is not perfect pass, and his determination is portrayed in a profound way. The repetition helps develop a sense of time and supports the showing of consistency. Using this literary device, Koyczan creates depth and further helps develop the theme of perseverance in the poem. Hyperboles help develop the theme of “Beethoven”, specifically the part where it is most effective. To make Beethoven's accomplishment more memorable, Koyczan uses hyperboles to make it substantially more significant : realizing that Beethoven's musical measurements could take you to the distances reaching past the Towers of Babylon, turning solar systems into cymbals that crash together, causing comets to collide, creating crescendos that were so loud they shook the constellations until the stars began to fall from the …show more content…
Everything he endures is implied as absolutely agonizing, but he still becomes one of the greatest composers, if not the greatest : “And when he could play no more and his fingers cramped up like the gnarled roots / of tree trunks.”(19-20) This further helps to develop the theme considering it is displaying everything he goes through and put himself through to be where he is. Comparing the way his fingers feel cramped up to gnarled roots of tree trunks makes the reader feel somewhat remorseful towards Beethoven because of this comparison that sounds absolutely a, but he wanted to be the greatest and pushed himself to it. As has been stated, similes enhance the theme to show how bad things can get, in moments where words would not be able to explain what he is going through, yet he still represses his feelings and endures