Preview

Fleetwood Mac's Landslide: A Song on Aging and Corruption

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1187 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Fleetwood Mac's Landslide: A Song on Aging and Corruption
Warner PAGE 4

Hollie Warner

Mr. Mullen

English 3

November 7, 2014

"Landslide"

The song "Landslide" performed by Fleetwood Mac and written by their lead singer Stevie Nicks illustrates the struggles of aging and being infringed with corruption. She utilizes free verse in both her rhythm and rhyme scheme to describe her evolution as the years have past. Her tone is initially reflective with a hint of insecurity, but by the end of the song it morphs into confidence and acceptance. Nicks uses figurative language such as metaphor, conceit, and symbols to create images that express the unsureness she is trying to overcome. Stevie Nicks utilizes many literary elements to express the endeavors of growing old.

"Landslide" is written with a rhythmic and rhyming free verse, but some brief patterns occur within the song. The rhythm begins with a random series of 8, 10, 13, and 7. The bridge to the chorus is 10, 10, 10, 10 and the chorus is 8, 8, 6, 6, 6. The bridge of the song is a series of questions that call out to a higher power. The consistent amount of syllables creates a sense of pondering, and makes the questions sound as if they are running through her mind and playing on a constant loop. The syllables' perpetually creates an exasperated tone that adds to the confusion she is experiencing. Another present element is sporadic end rhyme such as, "down/around" (1-2), "love/above" (5-6), "tides/life" (7-8), and "bolder/ older" (16-17). The rhymes are not consistent within the poem but appear occasionally. Along with end rhyme, the word "too" is repeated many times and shows how Nicks' thinking is evolving and how she is attempting to reassure herself. "Landslide" is about Nicks trying to pave a virtuous route for her neoteric life.

Stevie Nicks is at a crossroad and is unsure about how to proceed. Her indecisiveness is relayed when she says, "I took my love and took it down/ I climbed a mountain and I turned around" (1-2). She is not able to commit because of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    It is composed of several different lyrical speech-like phrases with rhapsodic emotions with a low level rhythm. The rhythm is based on a syllable count, accents, and long and short vowels. In the background of the piece is the sound of a faint fiddle. It is harmonically accompanying the angelical choir through the highs and lows of the chant. In this recording, there is an added drone accompaniment that was not in the original single melodic line manuscript. At first, the melody seems calm as it proceeds primarily by step within a low register. Then the melody creates a sense of progression and growth as it moves gradually through a wide pitch range. The melody soars up to two and one half octaves, leaping and swirling into a flourish of emotions. The heights of this chant are like the spires of Gothic cathedrals shooting upwards into the sky. The climactic tone is reserved for the concluding phrase, which gently descends by step to the original low…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He has done this by using the rhyme pattern of ABCB. The use of Slessor 's rhyme creates a sense of flow to the audience. This particular statement works well with the beach scene featured in the poem and the amount of dead men continually sinuously into the beach. The line "the convoys of dead soldiers come" reinstates this idea. Slessor also proposes that war is inevitable and always continue just like the dead men. Slessor 's purpose of half rhymes also creates a standstill in the poem, the audience stops for a moment to reflect on the realities of war and how dreadful and disrespectful the dead men are treated after they have fought and served for their country. We also meditate for what has happened to the men and what really happens after death at war. To reinforce Slessor 's purpose he uses the lines "wavers and fades, the purple drips, the breath of the wet season has washed their inscriptions as blue as drowned men 's lips." This describes the way in which our men are forgotten and no longer required for the war effort. Slessor wants the responder to recognize this…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    imagery and the repetition of lyrics. Types of imagery indicated in this song are religious imagery “…

    • 535 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What the poem lacks in rhyme-scheme, it makes up for in euphony and verbal irony, with alliterated lines such as "I was back in neutral..again, slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing", describing the process of getting the "car" going. Following that line, as the "driving" becomes more intense, the meter becomes even more pleasant to the ear as the poem reads " passed from low through second-in-to-high like greased lightning", using these sonically pleasant combination of words to give off the impression of motion, that which is present in the act of driving, and definitely not absent from the "other" act that is implied by this poem. The poem then climaxes by graphically describing what is undoubtedly a portrait of a sexual climax, saying, " just as we turned the corner of…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Figurative language and sensory imagery is used in the first stanza to create a tone of grieving, loss and nostalgia, through imagery of a dull ‘cold dusk’ and ‘frail, melancholy flowers among ashes’. The simile ‘the melting west is striped like ice-cream’ creates a sense of transition, reflecting the beginning of the persona’s introspective retreat into her thoughts. The use of an anaphora, which is the repetition of a word at the beginning of lines or sentences, in the line ‘Ambiguous light. Ambiguous sky’ also displays this transience. The symbol of ice-cream also represents childhood and a feeling of nostalgia for that time in the persona’s life. Her attempt at ‘whistling a trill’ may be an attempt to imitate her father’s whistling which is mentioned during the reflection of her memory, suggesting that she is trying to recreate her past experience but can’t properly do so. The persona’s direct speech in the line “Where’s morning gone?” is a rhetorical question that is questioning the…

    • 1701 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fleetwood Mac

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Medical diagnostic radiographers operate x-ray and other imaging equipment to assist in the diagnostic and subsequent management of disease or injury. Radiology has been used for medical purposes for over a century and remains the cornerstone of the medical field. The path to becoming and remaining a success in the field of radiology technician are education and training in the right program. So many questions come along with this career as with any. What is the job description? What will it entail? What is the average income? Generally responsible for preparing and safely positioning patients in order to get the most accurate imaging and assisting the radiologist with advanced prep.…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The song starts out with a strang questioning of reality: “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality, Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see”. They first two lines are rhetorical questions. They help establish the state of mind needed in order to continue with the song. The third line is a metaphor. It means everything is crashing down on him, and he cannot escape it. It seems to conclude that he is caught between a dream and awakening. The next couple set of lines are being used as transitions into the main part of stanza one, “I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy, Because I’m easy come, easy go, Little high, little low, Any way the wind blows, Doesn’t really matter to me, to me”. In the third and fourth line repetition is used in order to keep the lyrics flowing. The boy thinks his life doesn’t matter to anyone, his life is meaningless and the Earth does not care what happens to him. He does not care what happens next, he just wants it over; “any way the wind blows” him, he will go and it “doesn’t really matter” to him anymore. The next three lines show intent to kill by the boy, “Mama, just killed a man, Put a gun against his head, Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead”. The boy has finally come to terms of what he has…

    • 1458 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Crossing the Swamp

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Some of the sound devices include consonance, rhythm and alliteration with the repetition of the end sounds of such as in the words” pathless, seamless, peerless” (line 12-13), and “foothold, fingerhold, mindhold” (line 16-17). The speaker also used alliteration in line 19 with hipholes and hummocks.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tragedy is inevitable; it affects all human beings at one point or another. Russell Banks illustrates this universal truth brilliantly in “The Sweet Hereafter.” Bank’s characters, Billy Ansel, Nicole Burnell and Dolores Driscoll all face tragedy, and all gain insight into themselves. However, not all characters react to tragedy consistently. To some this is beneficial, although to others this is the greatest tragedy of all.…

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beatles: Revolution

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Revolution was written by John Lennon (published by Apple Records, all rights reserved) and was released as a single along with Hey Jude on August 26, 1968 in the United States and August 30, 1968 in the United Kingdom. This song was written and recorded on July 13, 1968 and can also be found in later albums such as the Hey Jude LP, The Beatles 1967-1970 album, and also Rock N' Roll Music album. It was also later recorded by Billy Bragg in 1992, Mike and the Mechanics in 1989, and the Thompson Twins in 1985.1 There are 3 different versions to the song. The original version, Revolution 1, was much slower and was added to the well known White Album. Revolution was known for its much faster pace as well as heavier distortion. John states "There were two different versions of that song, but the underground left only picked the up on the one that said ‘count me out'. The original version which ended up on the LP said ‘count me in' too; I put both on there because I wasn't sure. I didn't want to get killed."2 Revolution had one more version called Revolution 9, which was a very psychedelic version to the song. What Lennon was trying to do was paint a picture of how he felt Revolution should be portrayed, but he made a mistake. The mistake was that it was anti-revolution.3 Revolution 9 was basically a compilation of sounds and effect that produced a strange song. Many people didn't know how to react to it.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this song, the writer is combining partly a love song, 'Countin' the ways to where you are', partly saying how fast your life goes, 'half-time goes by, suddenly your wise, in the blink of an eye, 67 is gone'. The whole song is going through the singers life, and picturing every part of it and basically telling you to value your life for it goes really fast. The line, 'I'm 45... for a moment, the sea is high and I'm heading into a crisis' is talking bout mid-life crisis's, and the line directly after, 'Chasing the years of my life' is talking about how people react to their mid-life crisis. The easy cliché shows them going out to buy a sports car, but…

    • 688 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lesson plan

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This song displays self-reliance when she says, “ I won’t let you close enough to hurt, No, I won’t rescues you to desert me, I can’t give you the heart you think you gave me, It’s time to say goodbye to turning tables…” It shows she is ready to move on in her life, and that she is tired of not being in control but ruled by this certain someone.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The emotions in the song are bubbly, sad, scared, and excited because in the song she talks about her trying to talk, but nobody hearing her, and how she will try new things.The are conveyed about change in the song because they all tell about the thought, and belief in it. “I'll take a risk, take a chance, make a change, and Breakaway”. It's telling people that they're going to take a chance, make a change,…

    • 251 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    We Wear the Mask

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages

    4. What heavily connotative words are used? What words have unusual or special meanings? Are any words or phrases repeated? If so, why? Which words do you need to look up? This poem is very straightforward. There is no hidden meaning between the lines, just a wonderful poet pouring out her emotions on paper.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Response to Schoolsville

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This stanza illustrates that the person in this poem has created a small world in his head. Time passing is evident by the "car deflat[ing] in the driveway. Vines twirl up the porch swing." This stanza is the last stanza that shows personal evidence of the person's delusion.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics