Image by Mohamed Nuzrath from Pixabay
I am not a Swiftie. (Is that even how you spell it?) However, after taking two (going on three) songwriting classes in the style of Taylor Swift, I have to admit: She is a great songwriter if you like great lyrics and a catchy melody.
I don’t know if she is aware of the literary devices that she uses in her lyrics, but it is intentional, not random, even if she doesn’t know their names. And I didn’t know what these literary devices were called until I took the course.
Polyptoton is a device in which words derived from the same root are repeated in close proximity to each other.
We never had a shotgun shot in the dark (from “Getaway Car” by Taylor Swift)
Who will watch the watchman?
Takers take and that’s the truth (my lyric attempt)
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers
Anastrophe is the inversion in the usual order of words in a clause or sentence. Apparently it is the way Yoda speaks.
The greatest teacher, failure is (Yoda in Star Wars).
Blue is the color of the shirt he wore.
September was the month we met.
Asyndeton is the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence for effect.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
Hope, joy, tears, pain; can’t go through that again (my attempt at lyrics)
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought, Sold, stolen, arriving on the nightmare Praying for a dream. (from “On the Pulse of Morning”)
Epizeuxis is a literary or rhetorical device in which a word is repeated immediately for emphasis.
O horror, horror, horror! / Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee! (from Macbeth)
Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! (Tennyson)
Never give in—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. (Winston Churchill)
We are never, ever, ever, ever getting back together. (Taylor Swift)
Chiasmus is a device in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order.
“She has all my love; my heart belongs to her.”
“Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.” (John F. Kennedy)
“If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with” (Stephen Stills)
“With my mind on my money and my money on my mind” (Snoop Dog)
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