Song Analysis Assignment
(Worth 1 Paper Grade)
- Choose a song or poem that you like from a British songwriter/band/poet. This
should be a work that is in verse (not prose), and it should be a work that you genuinely
enjoy. Bring a copy of the lyrics/words to class with the author/date of release, and
place or origin (Great Britain, Scotland, Ireland, etc.). - Annotate the song for meter, rhyme, figurative language, and message as we have
been doing with poems. This means taking as many notes and making as many
observations as you possibly can to come to a conclusion about why the song is
appealing to you. - After annotating, do some research into the history of the artist and/or the story
behind the song and write down notes in addition to the annotations you’ve already
done. Include any sources as footnotes or on a bibliography page. - Compose a 1-2 page MLA-formatted, double-spaced analysis of the poem,
explaining what structural, thematic, or musical elements appeal to you as a
listener/reader.
The idea behind this assignment is to scrutinize a piece of music that we LOVE closely
and figure out/communicate WHY and HOW we love it so much by applying the same
kind of analysis that we have used in the poetry unit.
Peer review draft due: Wednesday, January 30 (2 printed copies in class)
Final draft due: Friday, February 1 on Turnitin.com at 4:00 p.m. (digital copy only)
Save file as: LastnameSongAnalysis
*Hint: It’s a good idea to upload your document to Turnitin.com as a PDF, especially if
you took notes by hand and need to combine PDF documents so that your
GoogleDoc/analysis is first and your annotations are included on page 2
*Do not borrow language from the Internet
Sample Solution