The object of the present work is to discuss the song “I wish you peace” by the Eagles.
The song starts with 20 seconds of only instrumental: the careful listener can hear that the instruments that are used are the piano and the xylophone. The rhythm is quite slow and happy at the same time, thanks to the guitar and the drums.
Considering the title, the intelligent listener should expect the song to be about peace. From the word wish, he or she also can expect the song to be about someone who wishes peace to another person. “Peace” can also be understood as general happiness and not just as peace as opposed to war.
Moving forward with the listening of the song the intelligent listener can hear that the rhythm changes and becomes faster and livelier during the chorus, the most important part of the song.
The song begins with a soloist. In the text, there is an anaphora. Indeed, "I wish" is repeated at the beginning of each sentence. The anaphora is always followed by unpleasant situations in a personas life but that the interlocutor hopes that the one to whom it is addressed will be able to overcome them and be able to find peace and happiness.
In the song, there is the contrast between light and dark, "the light to guide through the dark". This opposition can be replaced by peace, as far as light is concerned, and war as regards darkness. The singer, therefore, wants to urge the interlocutor to follow the path of peace so as not to fall into the dark one, the evilness.
In the last two lines of the refrain, the singer wishes to have the strength to feel love and make it grow and flow within it. This could mean that love is a means and a cure to go back and overcome difficult times, but it can also be the cause.
The song’s message is to never lose hope even in the most difficult moments and to always seek the strength to get up and move forward to reach happiness.