"Let Her Go", which is on the album All the Little Lights by Passenger and debuted in 2012, is a beautiful song whose words create a new and relatable way to allow the listener understand what it means to lose things that you take for granted. This idea forms the quite evident deeper meaning of the song: you do not know what you have until it is gone. This song is a form of poetry because is uses poetic devices such as personification, hyperboles and repetition and has a deeper meaning than the words lead on.
"Let Her Go" is poetry in the form of music because it uses poetic devices and the words lead to a deeper meaning for the song as a whole. This idea is shown when Passenger sings about how he cannot seem to help himself from ruining everything when he says, “Everything you touch surely dies.” Not only does the artist use the words to disguise his self-doubt, but also uses a poetic device, a hyperbole, to make a striking line. The verse is a hyperbole because, as many things in his life may be unsuccessful, everything he touches does not actually die so he is making an overstatement. This verse helps establish the theme of the song because the artist believes he ruined his relationship and cannot forgive himself because of it. The next poetic line uses personification and imagery to continue the theme of self-reflection and remorse as it says, “Staring at the bottom of your glass/ Hoping one day you’ll make a dream last/ But dreams come slow and they go so fast.” Personification is used in this verse because a “dream” is doing the actions of a person, such as walking and running. This line is also a great example of imagery because it creates the image of a remorseful man, drinking away his feelings and missing the love of his life. These lines help establish the greater meaning of the song because the artist is at a low point in his life because he did not realize what he had until he lost it. Finally, in the first few lines of the song and repeated throughout, the artist uses repetition as a poetic device as he sings, “Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low/ Only hate the road when you’re missing home/ Only know you love her when you let her go.” The line displays the deeper meaning of the song as a whole as it says that the only time you appreciate the things that you have is when you do not have them anymore, such as an underappreciated good day when you are having a bad one. This is the most striking verse of the whole song and is repeated throughout to emphasize the main idea of the song, which is to tell people to appreciate the things they have before they are gone.
The use of poetic devices in the song "Let Her Go" justifies the idea that it is a form of poetry in a musical sense. The poetic devices also help to emphasize the greater meaning behind significant words. In conclusion, "Let Her Go" by Passenger is an extremely poetic song because it uses a number of poetic strategies and reflects on a universal truth: overall, you can only appreciate love when it is lost.
You did a really nice job analyzing that song. I have listened to that song countless times and i never really payed attention to what the words meant. I can understand why you think the song can be poetic and i agree with you.
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