Poetry Blog Post #4

For my love song post, in honor of Valentine’s Day coming up, I chose to analyze the Beatles’ smash hit, I Saw Her Standing There. When I first read this prompt, the first thing that came to mind was The Beatles. They were created love songs that almost everybody knows and can sing along to. Here are the lyrics:

I Saw Her Standing There

(1,2,3,4!)

Well, she was just 17
You know what I mean
And the way she looked was way beyond compare
So how could I dance with another (Ooh)
When I saw her standing there

Well she looked at me, and I, I could see
That before too long I'd fall in love with her
She wouldn't dance with another (Whooh)
When I saw her standing there

Well, my heart went "boom"
When I crossed that room
And I held her hand in mine...

Whoah, we danced through the night
And we held each other tight
And before too long I fell in love with her
Now I'll never dance with another (Whooh)
Since I saw her standing there

Well, my heart went "boom"
When I crossed that room
And I held her hand in mine...

Whoah, we danced through the night
And we held each other tight
And before too long I fell in love with her
Now I'll never dance with another (Whooh)
Since I saw her standing there

The use of onomatopoeia, varied rhyme scheme, and repetition of dance imagery among other elements are used to build a fun love song that has spoken to generations. Onomatopoeia is used to show that the speaker’s heart went “boom”, usually meaning that the presence of this girl made his heart thump harder and he really did like her a lot. I think one of the greatest things about a love ballad is that it paints a romantic picture in our heads. The Beatles do this by showing a couple dancing the night away- which is so romantic. Who wouldn’t want to dance the night away with a member of the Beatles? The rhyme scheme makes the poem seem very thoughtful and kept the poem moving. This is not a heavy love song, it’s about dancing with a person you love and having fun. The rhyme scheme helps set this lighthearted and fun tone by adding bounce and movement. Every stanza has a slightly different rhyme scheme but every stanza does have some sort of end rhyme, examples are “boom” and “room” and “night” and “tight.” The repetition of the lines “Since I saw her standing there” or “And I held her hand in mine” at the end of every stanza is a very important choice. These lines both use alliteration (“since” and “standing”, and “held”, “her”, “hand”) which make these words stand out to readers. Likewise, using these lines at the end of the stanza automatically draws the readers’ attention to them. Though this love song seems purely catching, when you look into it, there are clearly choices made that poetically make it meaningful and stand out in the listener or readers head.