Textuality » 3LSCA InteractingASorrentino - "Over the rainbow" analysis
by 2020-12-22)
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"OVER THE RAINBOW ANALYSIS" The object of the present work is to discuss and analyze the song "Over the rainbow" by Judy Garland. Looking at the title, I expect the poem to be about something extraordinary because it is used the word “rainbow”moreover in some cultures it is considered as a bridge between the world of heaven and that of earth, therefore between material and spiritual reality. I also expect the image of something as colorful and bright as the rainbow. Considering the layout, the song is arranged into five stanzas: there are three quatrains, the last stanza is a tercet and the central stanza is a sextet, so it is the longest one. The three quatrains have a similar structure to each other: indeed, they all start with the same line and the second line of each of them is shorter than the others. The apparent regularity is broken due to the last verse of the third quatrain which, unlike the first two, poses an interrogative sentence, thus ending with the question mark. In the first stanza the speaking voice discuss about a certain place, that is located in a “way up high”, maybe a religious place as it is said to be above the heavens, where the divine world is also placed. The speaking voice tells about “a land of I heard” therefore, he probably wants to communicate the idea that what he heard happened in a past tense and it can be understood from the use of the verb in the simple past Therefore, the intelligent reader might think that the place to which the speaking voice refers is heaven as, in addition to being described as a place in the heavens, it is also described positively. In the song, this place is described with positive traits, a place that goes beyond reality as it refers to dreams. In the last line of the second stanza, the dreams are said to come true, thus giving hope. In the first line of the sextet, it is used the simple future form with the speaking voice imagines the day when he or she will be in this place. He or she positively connotes this place where there are no worries or troubles. In the third line you can identify the figure of speech of metaphor where the “troubles” are compared with lemon drops that melt, without having serious consequences. In the fifth line the speaking voice conveys the idea of height again, telling the interlocutor that he would find it above the chimneys which constitute the highest point of the houses. In the last verse of the sixth he addresses the recipient of the song saying that the mail would find it in the future. here is again used the simple future, creating a circular structure of the stanza when it was used also in the first line. In the second line of the fourth stanza the speaking voice talks about “bluebirds”. The word refers to the second verse in which color blue is associated with the heavens. They are located above the rainbow and both are associated to color blue. The last line of the fourth stanza strikes the reader’s attention because it ends with the exclamation point. Indeed, the speaking voice he wonders why she can't access this beautiful place. In the last stanza of the song, the speaking voice it introduces a hypothetical period that precedes a question: it is the same as that which is posed in the previous stanza. The song then ends with the image of the speaking voice as embittered and sad as it cannot access this place described in this enchanting way. |