Using song lyrics to explore figurative language

As part of our literacy programme we are looking at song lyrics. Emotions are hard to convey with literal language so song writers often use figurative language to convey them. Often song lyrics can be confusing and unclear because of this, so they provide an excellent opportunity for us to explore language features and identify what was being conveyed.

We started off with a Ben Harper song called, 'Oppression'. We looked at his use of personification. We saw that song lyrics/poetry often don't follow the rules of grammar and punctuation. We explored the meaning of different sections and then rewrote a verse in a different tense to identify why Ben Harper chose the tense he did. The students then wrote their own verse personifying the emotion of fear.

Here are the lyrics: