Mockingbird

In the song “mockingbird” by Eminem he tries to explain to his two daughters Hallie and Lainey who are the audience of this song, why the bad things in their childhood happened. He also tries to explain to his kids why he wasn't there, why him and his wife divorced and his whole point of view of them now. He gets this messages across by personifying life, using anaphora, and switching the points of view from him to his daughter.

In this verse Eminem uses anaphora, repeating the beginning of a sentence and changing the end, to explain to how his daughters has changed in his eyes. He also personifies life in the verse by assigning body movements to it and saying that life mended and shaped what his daughters have become today.

We're all we got in this world
When it spins, when it swirls
When it whirls, when it twirls
Two little beautiful girls

He also uses personification to explain their mothers drug habit to them. In this verse he personifies her drug addiction as this force that overtook her and that was so strong and quick that no one could stop it or “grab it”.

mamma developed a habit
And it all happened too fast for either one of us to grab it

In this verse he explained what happened during christmas by switching the point of view from him to one of his daughters and explained the entire situation from her eyes. By doing this i think that he gave the audience a snip it of his daughters reaction to all the things going on in their lives.

I remember back one year when daddy had no money
Mommy wrapped the Christmas presents up
And stuck 'em under the tree and said some of 'em were from me
'Cause daddy couldn't buy 'em
I'll never forget that Christmas I sat up the whole night crying
Cause daddy felt like a bum