How do the poetic devices in this song help advance the theme
At one time or another, every one of us has been the underdog, facing a challenge that does not seem achievable , given a task we’re not expecting to complete, or even racked with self-doubt when we just might succeed. Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” is a dramatic, catchy, and inspirational song that involves plenty of poetic devices. In Eminem’s song the poetic devices allusion, rhyme, hyperbole and metaphor are used to advance the theme “you will succeed if you never give up on your dream”. This song was written to motivate anyone to pursue their dream and to never give up no matter what happens.
First, Eminem uses allusion to help us picture the process of his career in the making. He used this poetic device to help compare himself to someone. The example of allusion that I found the most important was “known as a globetrotter” in line seven of the fourth stanza. A globetrotter is a person who travels around the world regularly or frequently. I think that he would refer to himself as a globetrotter because he had to go out of his way and travel worldwide very often to get noticed, improve and turn his dream into a reality. Eminem did not come from a great place nor a great family, he saved up every penny he earned so he would be able to pursue his dream of singing. Allusion helped advance the theme of this song because he went to multiple places so that he could be shown around, he did not just go to one place and stop, he went everywhere, he traveled regularly and gave effort because the more people that have seen his music, the more opportunities he gets. Eminem never gave up, he was risking the chance that others and that the producers wouldn’t enjoy his music, he was always pushing towards his dream. That was not the only poetic device that helped extend the knowledge of the theme in this song.
Rhyme is used plenty of times in Eminem’s lyrics to show us how he never gave up on his dream. For example: “His palms are sweaty, knee’s weak, arms are heavy- There’s vomit on his sweater already. Mom’s spaghetti.” That is an example of a true rhyme (sweaty, heavy, already and spaghetti). It tells us that he was nervous and scared to start because he did not know what to expect and what obstacles he would have to overcome. But just because of those scary moments, he did not give up. Later on in the song the lyrics say” It only grows harder/ homie grows hotter/ performing coast to coast shows”. In this quotation, the words that rhyme are grows and shows and harder and hotter. The rhyme grows and shows mean that he is growing, becoming a better artist and performing live shows for his fans because he is a star and harder and hotter mean that while he is becoming more popular the process is becoming harder but he is still becoming more popular and people are starting to listen to his music. So if you put these two rhymes together, the ones from the beginning, saying that he didn’t give up no matter how nervous he was and the ones from the end saying that he succeeded and has grown to be a hotter/ better singer, it helps us advance the theme that you will actually succeed if you don’t give up. The rhyming words in the lyrics help advance the theme by telling us that he did not give up on his dream, turned it into a reality and succeeded, therefore this can be possible for anyone, everyone is capable of it. That was not the last of Eminem’s use of poetic devices.
There are many poetic devices used in this song but the last device that I will be writing about is simile. During the song Lose yourself in the last stanza Eminem wrote “I’m like a snail” comparing himself to being slow like a snail. At that moment Eminem’s career was not flowing how he would have liked it too, everything was going downhill. But Eminem did not stop no matter how hard the situation was, he did not stop there, he would not stop pushing until his dream became true. The following line says “I’ve got to formulate a plot/or I end up in jail or shot”. This shows that he definitely does not want to give up, he does not want to end up in a bad situation. He wants to create himself a plan so that he could have success with his dream and that is what he did. Even though he was stuck and was moving slowly, Eminem stook to his plan and did not give up and that is what brought him too where he is today.
The theme of this song is exactly what Eminem did, he never gave up, he did not let anything interrupt his path to his dream and he succeeded. He made himself one the best and most-known rap/pop artist in the whole world. The hardest part of the journey is to keep your mind focused on the result you want to achieve and to not give up. That is what the theme of this song tells us “you will succeed if you never give up on your dream”. Eminem used an enormous amount of poetic devices to help explain the story of how he did not give up on his dream even if hard situations were thrown at him. The process is the most important part, it is key not to break down and to never give up on your dreams. That is what gets you to the product. Just like shown in all these examples from the song, if you set your mind on achieving your dream you will achieve it.