"Over the Rainbow"

Somewhere over the rainbow

 way up high
There's a land that I heard of

once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow

 skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream

 really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow

 bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh, why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh, why can't I?

lullaby= ninna nanna

Dare= osare

Upon= sopra

Melt= squagliarsi/sciogliersi

Beyond= oltre

Analysis of the song:

The object of the present work is to discuss and analyse the song “over the rainbow”.

Just considering the title the reader expects the song to be about a fantastic and imaginary world in the sky, over the rainbow and the clouds, where there’s the happiness and justice’s rule. The reader would make these hypotheses because of the symbological meaning of rainbow. Indeed, Rainbow is usually used as the symbol of peace and in the meteorological field is the phenomenon created when the sun comes out from the clouds after a storm.

The main topic of the song is the hope, one day, of being able to reach the fantastic world above the rainbow that is a metaphor that stays for the achievement of your dreams. The present work is meant to find out the message of this song.

The song is organized into five stanzas and it doesn’t show a regular pattern, indeed three stanzas have four lines, a stanza has three lines and another one has five lines. In particular, for their number of lines, strike the reader attention the third stanza and the last one that are the longer one and the shorter one.

The five stanzas play a different role in the economy of the text. The first and the second have the function of describe the Over the rainbow world. The reader can find out it from the use of an anaphora at the end of these stanzas that repeat the title. In the first stanza the speaking voice starts the description of the fantastic world over the rainbow saying that he heard about it in a lullaby. From this information the reader would hypotheses that the world over the rainbow is the one in which we all go when we fall asleep, therefore the dreams’ world.

In the second one the speaking voice goes on with the description of the Over the rainbow world. In this land, he says, the skies are blue, there isn’t any cloud. This is a metaphor and it may stay for the absence of problems. He says also in this place all the dream you dare to dream when you are awake become true.

Instead in the third stanza the speaking voice moves the speech from the description of the fantastic place to himself. He admits that someday he will leave the earthly world and come to this magical place, where all his earthly problems would melt like candies.

The fourth stanza plays the role of create a bridge between the first-second stanzas and the third one, thus between the world over the rainbow and the desire of the speaking voice of going there. In this stanza the speaking voice refers that also bluebirds, birds very small and delicate that stay for happiness and optimism, can fly over the rainbow, so why shouldn’t he know how to do it?

The fifth stanza is a sort of conclusion. In this verse the narrator voice reiterates that, if happy frail birds can fly over the rainbow, why could he not? Why shouldn’t he have the skills to reach this place?

In conclusion, the message of the song is that everyone can reach the world Beyond the rainbow, a world like the dream’s one in which all problems vanish, and then realize their own desires.