Allegory, Allusion, Ambiguity

Allegory-

Believe by The Bravery


This song, "Believe" by The Bravery is an all around allegory. It has symbolic meaning aside from what the song plainly sounds like. The narrator says "Waiting for our ship to come but our ships not coming back." When he says this, it is evident that these people are not, in reality, waiting for their ship to come, they are waiting for their realization of what is going on around them as the rest of the song illuminates. Another line reads "Something's always coming you can hear it in the ground, It swells into the air with the rising, rising sound and never comes but shakes the boards and rattles all the doors." The point of this line is not to make the listener believe that there is some type of monster living in the boards of a home, but to symbolize that there is something in the back of these peoples minds telling them they need to start doing something important with their lives, and they are longing for this realization.

Allusion-

St. Patricks Day by John Mayer



This entire song is alluding different holidays and months of the year. The narrator is longing for St. Patricks Day because of the specific reasons that he does not like the other months. He alludes to November, December and the holiday of Christmas, January, February and it's holiday of Valentines day and finally he mentions St. Patrick's Day. He longs for St. Patricks day so he can forget about January being frozen, and being alone at Christmas time, because he clearly is missing somebody and maybe he will see them around St. Patrck's day.


Ambiguity-

A Kiss To Send Us Off by Incubus


"A Kiss To Send Us Off" by Incubus is about somebody longing for one last kiss from, evidently, somebody they care about. The song is ultimately ambiguous because there are a few things that the narrator might know that the audience is confused about such as why should they meet on November 11th. Also, why do they need to kiss "before the sky falls out this cloud" they are hovering on? It is very ambiguous because it can leave the listener with many questions as to why the narrator is so specific about where they need to meet and what will happen if they do not kiss.