Heroin Addiction: Lover Dearest By Josh Ramsey
Love Addict Music and literature have been a mode of expression for all of recorded history. Song lyrics are poetic expression. Poetry is defined as: “writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm” (Merriam Webster). The lyrics of “Lover Dearest”, by Josh Ramsey, fit this definition perfectly. “Lover Dearest” is a love letter written about heroin addiction; the speaker uses metaphor, pessimistic tone, and revealing diction to convey his desperation. “Lover Dearest” uses a metaphor to compare drug addiction to romance. The speaker professes his distorted love for heroin as if the drug were his lover.
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He feels connected and fulfilled when he is using drugs. When the rest of the world is not there to criticize his choices, he is content. “Rather than a quest for significance, the drug subculture is portrayed as a retreat from society” (Addiction and Discouragement 3). He feels security in the addictive lifestyle that he knows, and is afraid of what his life would become without the use of drugs. “Lover Dearest” contains a desire for a change that seems unlikely to the speaker. His lover is portrayed in a pessimistic way: “You 're still the best more or less, I guess” (Ramsay 12). This partner is the most important thing he has experienced, but he feels like there is something better he could have. He is hesitant to leave something comfortable, fearing that he may never replace it with anything that feels as good. The speaker displays an uncertainty; he is not confident that he deserves more than he …show more content…
In the lyrics of “Lover Dearest” there is never a clear reference made to the gender of the audience. He speaks directly to his lover, but does not use a name or gender to approach it. He only addresses his love as “you”. This lack of clarity is relevant; it confirms that his love is for an inanimate thing, not a person. He is captivated by his desire for the drug and is searching for the strength to leave it behind him. The speaker reveals his drug of choice with selective diction. He claims, “I still love your taste” (Ramsay 3), which could be interpreted ambiguously. The statement could be understood as a sexual reference, but later in the lyrics it is clarified. When he says “the bitter in you” (Ramsay 27), he is indicating that he uses heroin: “Pure heroin is a fine, white, bitter-tasting crystalline powder” (Health Concerns: Heroin). “Bitter” is one of the slang terms used to refer to heroin. The drug-related vocabulary is one mechanism that reveals this set of lyrics to be more than a love
He feels connected and fulfilled when he is using drugs. When the rest of the world is not there to criticize his choices, he is content. “Rather than a quest for significance, the drug subculture is portrayed as a retreat from society” (Addiction and Discouragement 3). He feels security in the addictive lifestyle that he knows, and is afraid of what his life would become without the use of drugs. “Lover Dearest” contains a desire for a change that seems unlikely to the speaker. His lover is portrayed in a pessimistic way: “You 're still the best more or less, I guess” (Ramsay 12). This partner is the most important thing he has experienced, but he feels like there is something better he could have. He is hesitant to leave something comfortable, fearing that he may never replace it with anything that feels as good. The speaker displays an uncertainty; he is not confident that he deserves more than he …show more content…
In the lyrics of “Lover Dearest” there is never a clear reference made to the gender of the audience. He speaks directly to his lover, but does not use a name or gender to approach it. He only addresses his love as “you”. This lack of clarity is relevant; it confirms that his love is for an inanimate thing, not a person. He is captivated by his desire for the drug and is searching for the strength to leave it behind him. The speaker reveals his drug of choice with selective diction. He claims, “I still love your taste” (Ramsay 3), which could be interpreted ambiguously. The statement could be understood as a sexual reference, but later in the lyrics it is clarified. When he says “the bitter in you” (Ramsay 27), he is indicating that he uses heroin: “Pure heroin is a fine, white, bitter-tasting crystalline powder” (Health Concerns: Heroin). “Bitter” is one of the slang terms used to refer to heroin. The drug-related vocabulary is one mechanism that reveals this set of lyrics to be more than a love