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WP #1

All forms of communication would be boring and virtually indistinguishable in a world

without genres. Without the small differences in format and substance that come from genres,

written communications would be bland, inefficient lines of text. This is because the use of

different genres can have vastly different influences on an audience—even in regard to the same

subject. Genres are able to define texts by filtering out the kind of information included in them,

and the way the material is presented. Genre can also influence a reader’s response to a message

by providing context clues, and using rhetorical tools to maintain interest. Take, for instance, the

act of professing one’s love for another individual. Such professions of affection can come in

many forms that can be compared and contrasted for their usefulness in conveying the overall

message. Two forms of love professions that we will consider in this piece are love songs, and

romantic poems. Although they both serve to communicate the same feelings, they accomplish

that through different genres, and those differences completely shift our interpretations of the

message. Each genre has its strengths and weaknesses that play a part in how the audience

interprets the piece. Ultimately, the love song’s simplicity, format qualities, and direct delivery

from the writer makes it the more effective form of love profession.

An enchanting Genre characteristic that sets Romantic poems apart from other

affectionate communications is its use of imagery. Romantic poems are a classic genre used for

conveying feelings of love precisely because they are emotionally expressive. The poems

employ imagery as a rhetorical tool in order to add an illusive air to the text. When an author

uses descriptive language that allows the reader to imagine a certain time, thing, or place, they

are using imagery to enhance their work. The benefit of creating such images in their reader’s

mind is the ability to mold reader interpretations. By forging mental images through speech, the
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poet has the ability to control what the audience is thinking. The romantic poet can use imagery

to set the scene, color characters in a positive or negative light, and allow readers to feel as

though they are witnessing the scenes unfold. In this way, the author can encourage the reader to

see things through the author’s own lens. Use of imagery can be found in Edgar Allan Poe’s

“Annabel Lee” when he writes “it was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea.” By

describing a place and a faraway time, Poe is trying to engage the reader to imagine the scene in

which the poem takes place. This is an advantage that romantic poems have over love songs

when it comes to conveying messages: the writer has the power to directly control the reader’s

imagination, and can set the scene accordingly.

In contrast to the romantic poem’s imagery, love songs mainly rely on sound and pace

rather than words to move the reader. Part of what makes love songs so effective at portraying

romantic feelings is the way they use intimate language, and slower beats to create a more

romantic sound. Love songs are often slow-paced or upbeat as slower music is traditionally

associated with romance, and upbeat music is related to feelings of happiness. Having a slower

pace also allows for the singer to recite the lyrics in a more deliberate and serene way. This

ultimately adds to the effect of the words by adding an air of intimacy to them. Upbeat love

songs serve to create a joyful tone for the listeners to excitedly sing or dance along to. They fill

the audience with happy thoughts and feelings, and allow them to physically enjoy the

cheerfulness that the singer feels from being in love. For the audience, being able to hear the

songwriter recite the song lyrics adds even more context for interpreting the intended message.

Through the songwriter’s voice, listeners can determine what the messenger’s tone is, and hear

the emotions of the words through the voice. Being able to audibly interpret the tone and

meaning of the song is arguably the most important aspect of communicating through love
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songs. The audience is primarily focused on the tone and beat of the song rather than the words.

This is because music is concerned with expressing feelings primarily through sounds, and treat

words as a secondary concern. After all, an audience only needs to hear the beat of a song to

determine how it makes them feel.

Another interesting feature of romantic poems is their highly expressive format.

Romantic poems tend to be arranged into lines of short sentences or phrases. The lines each tell a

story of their own when they are read individually, yet they come together to tell the entire story

when read all at once. When it comes to romantic poems, each line is a profession of love that

joins with the other lines to form a bolder overarching profession. For instance, the lines “but we

loved with a love that was more than love—/I and my Annabel Lee,” are only a small part of the

larger story, but they tell a love story all on their own. Through those two lines alone, any reader

could interpret that the poem is meant to be a romantic piece reminiscent of past love. Individual

verses within songs are similar to lines in poems in that they also tell a small part of the story.

Romantic poems are also formatted with various rhyming patterns that help to engage the reader

in the text. Edgar Allan Poe utilizes this rhyming structure in “Annabel Lee” when he writes,

“and this was the reason that, long ago/ in this kingdom by the sea, / a wind blew out of a cloud,

chilling/ my beautiful Annabel Lee.” Poe chooses to make every other line rhyme in order to

emphasize the key parts of the narrative in this particular stanza. By making Annabel Lee rhyme

with “sea,” the author is emphasizing the importance of these words, and the implicit connection

between them. The rhyming pattern engages the reader by capturing their attention, and

highlighting the important role of the two rhyming things. Additionally, rhyming also has the

benefit of forming a rhythm to read the poem to. This established reading pace can make the
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poem a more interesting and smooth read, which increases its pleasant effect. These format

attributes help to convey the message in a way that is easy and enjoyable for the reader.

Love songs are similar to poems due to their expressive nature, but they use verses and

choruses to express emotions audibly. Love songs are formed by combining multiple verses that

each relay a part of the overall message. Each verse consists of a collection of individual lines

that tell a part of the story. These verses have an effect comparable to that of lines in a romantic

poem. Verses in love songs are often full of praises and affection because they are meant to set

the romantic mood and loving tone of the song. The second verse in Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out

Loud,” showers the song’s subject with praises when it expresses “’cause, honey, your soul

could never grow old, it’s evergreen.” Compliments similar to this throughout the verse let the

reader know that the singer admires the subject, and is in love. Verses play an important role in

forming the context and revealing the intention of the love song to the audience because they set

the scene for the song’s chorus. The chorus is where the main profession of love is contained,

and it’s repeated throughout the song in order to reiterate the singer’s main message. One

example of a chorus that exemplifies feelings of love and adoration can be taken from Ed

Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” when Sheeran sings “take me into your loving arms/ kiss me

under the light of a thousand stars/ place your hand on my beating heart, I'm thinking out loud/

and maybe we found love right where we are.” The chorus ties the rest of Sheeran’s song

together by reiterating the singer’s feelings of love. It also serves the purpose of being the center

of the catchy tune that the song is set to, so it doubles as a tool to generate interest in the song

itself. The chorus is an instrumental part of the love song because it is essentially the thesis of the

piece—the message to be conveyed to the audience. The repeated chorus gives love songs a
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communicative advantage over romantic poems because the most important part of the song is

repeated throughout while romantic poems only get one chance to get their main point across.

Romantic poems tend to use diction, the selection of specific words, in order to enhance

the effect of the words on the reader. Lord Byron utilizes diction in “She Walks in Beauty,”

when he remarks, “one shade the more, one ray the less/ had half impair’d the nameless grace/

which waves in every raven tress/ or softly lightens o’er her face.” Lord Byron chooses to use

descriptive words such as “raven” and “nameless grace” to describe the darkness of the subject’s

hair in order to add a more romantic, observational element to the text. He also acknowledges the

softness of the light upon her face to hint at the soft, feminine beauty of the subject. Many

romantic poems are centered around the author’s choice of diction because the specific words

used to describe are what makes the poems so romantic. They ascribe the adoring, emotional

qualities to the subject of the poem. Without romantic diction, romantic poems would be

incapable of conveying their affectionate messages. Love songs, on the other hand, do use

descriptive language, but to a lesser extent than romantic poems. With love songs, the emphasis

is not on the actual words used, but rather the overall tone of the piece including the rhythm and

beat. Romantic poems do not have the benefit of a background tune to help relay their message,

so they must focus on carefully selecting words that make their romantic intentions clear.

However, diction doesn’t always serve to advance the point of a romantic poem. In some cases,

the use of diction serves to add complexity that can be difficult for the reader to understand and

interpret. When that happens, the use of diction becomes a disadvantage to the writer as the

audience may struggle to grasp their main points.

Because poems are such a personal and intimate form of expression, they are usually

meant to be enjoyed by a specific small audience. The intended audience of romantic poems
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tends to be people close to the writer, perhaps even the subject of the poem. This is why romantic

poems commonly employ devices such as diction, imagery, and rhyming. The goal is not simply

to convey one’s love for another person, it is to connect personal emotions with artistic language

in order to personalize the writing. When the poem is read by its intended audience, the devices

used can take on the role of more abstract, personal embellishments of emotion. This limits the

communicative potential for readers who are not part of the original intended audience because

they lack the prior knowledge necessary to fully understand the personalized poem. On the

contrary, love songs are written to be a source of entertainment for a broader audience. Although

love songs contain intimate language similar to that of romantic poems, it is usually less personal

and specific. The lack of personalization creates a potential for greater relatability amongst the

broad audience of listeners; it allows more people to feel connected to the song.

Similar to romantic poems, love songs also tend to use more elegant, and intimate word

choices in order to make the song seem more meaningful and relatable to the listener. This helps

to support the romantic beat and tone of the piece. Just like poems, love songs also utilize

imagery in order to get their message across, but the imagery is secondary to the music. For

instance, Daniel Caesar’s “Best Part” describes romantic scenes when he sings “it’s this

sunrise/and those brown eyes, yes/ you’re the one that I desire.” The imagery allows the listener

to imagine a beautiful sunrise, and lovers looking into each other’s eyes during this scene,

enhancing the romantic effect. Meanwhile, the slow pace of the song, and the singer’s soft voice

emphasize the affectionate meaning of the song. Contrary to romantic poems, love songs are

more likely to reach a broader audience because they are meant to entertain others. In order to do

so, they must be widely relatable, and audibly pleasing. Love songs prepare for this greater

exposure by sticking to words and ideas that are easily understood by everyone. In this way, the
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intended audience includes the person the writer had in mind when they created the song, and all

others who have felt the emotions the writer is conveying, and can relate to the song.

Because they are less personal than poems, are spoken directly from the messenger, and

are meant specifically to be experienced by others, love songs are better at conveying the

emotion of affection. They are able to do so in a way that it catchy, memorable, simple, and

clear. Regardless of whether someone is familiar with this genre, it’s clear that the message is

being portrayed in a way that is easy to understand. This is an important quality to have because

the purpose of communication is to make sure that the audience can clearly understand the point

that is being made. Poems can require careful interpretation due to excessive diction which can

complicate efforts to portray a certain message. The probability of key parts of the overall

message getting lost in translation is high with poems. In this sense, love songs are a better form

of communicating feelings of love because they are more likely to convey the message without

incident, and they can reach broader audiences.

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Works Cited

Caesar, Daniel. Lyrics to “Best Part.” Genius, 2017, https://genius.com/Daniel-caesar-best-part-

lyrics

Gordon, George. “She Walks in Beauty.” Poetry Foundation. Web. 17 March 2019.

Poe, Edgar A. “Annabel Lee.” Poetry Foundation. Web. 17 March 2019.

Sheeran, Ed. Lyrics to “Thinking Out Loud.” Genius, 2014, https://genius.com/Ed-sheeran-

thinking-out-loud-lyrics
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