ANALYSIS OF METAPHORS IN ED SHEERAN’S SONG

THE ‘A’ TEAM

EA0939: Aspectes Textuals i Discursius de la Llengua Anglesa

Miguel Angel Pitarch
Final coursework
Aida Rubert Palau
Course 2020/2021
Universitat Jaume I
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 3

CONTEXT OF THE SONG 4

ANALYSIS OF THE SONG 4

DISCUSSION 5

CONCLUSION 6

REFERENCES 7

APPENDIX 8
INTRODUCTION

The main aim of this essay is to analyse deeply the lyrics of the song The A Team by Ed
Sheeran, a song that probably many of you will know but maybe you have not stopped to give
it the attention it deserves as it is a great piece of art with a huge and important background.

The essay is going to follow a clear structure based on Critical Discourse Analysis. In
order to make all of this come to full fruition, the concepts to be used will be provided in the
theoretical background part. Moreover, some context and some issues to bear in mind are
going to be provided because it is important to achieve a complete understanding of the song
and the feelings and thoughts of the author. Then, an analysis of the metaphors encountered is
going to be carried out, as well as the explanation of the meaning of each one.

Finally, in the discussion all the foundings and hidden meanings and thoughts will be
wrapped to give a very complete meaning to this analysis. It is important to pay attention that
each one can interpret the meaning of this song as you wish. To conclude, a conclusion of my
personal feelings while doing this work will be explained, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This section will explain some key concepts to make it easier to understand the purpose
of this work. To begin with, it will be explained what metaphors are, which wraps all the
specific concepts that we will see, providing the proper definition of each concept. Finally, an
explanation of the analysis of these features will be included.

Cambridge Dictionary defines metaphor as an expression, often found in literature, that

describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similar
characteristic to that person or object. Metaphors can be understood in two different ways.
Firstly, as an expression of an understanding of one concept in terms of another one, being
some similarity or correlation between both. The other interpretation is as the understanding
itself of one concept in terms of another, as The Glossary of Linguistic Terms state.

In closing with this section, the analysis is going to be presented as Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA), which takes linguistic and psychological approaches one step further by
analysing the data from a decidedly critical stance. These analyses examine the discourse but
also ask for a critique of these ones. CDA not only captures something important about the
social world, but also plays a key ethical and political role in showing how things become to
be as they are (ScienceDirect, 2018)

CONTEXT OF THE SONG

The A team is a song made by Ed Sheeran, a 29 year-old english singer who sings pop,
rock, romantic ballads and folk captivating people with his voice and guitar. This song was
published the 12 of June of 2011 and it can be considered Ed’s debut single. It was nominated
for a Grammy price in 2013 and reached top 10 in a lot of countries.

Doing a deeper analysis in the song, it can be seen that it talks about drugs and
prostitution. The story of this song is quite emotive. Ed worked as a volunteer singing songs in
a homeless shelter, and it was there where he met Angel.
Angel was a girl from London, who was addicted to Crack, or how it is also known in London,
Class A Drug, a concept that can be also interpreted as The A Team. She used to work as a
prostitute to earn some money for living as well as for drugs. She was a homeless girl who
finally went over the drugs since the day someone found her almost died in the street. The
story of this girl, Angel, inspired the singer, and as he stated in an interview with Absolute
Radio in 2011, this song is ‘’ for Angel, for her. A girl addicted to Crack’’.
With this story, Ed Sheeran reached a wide audience because he received a lot of parental
feedback talking about their personal cases and stories with their daughters.
ANALYSIS OF THE SONG

In this section an analysis of metaphors is going to be carried out, with an explanation

of each metaphor for a complete understanding of them, although a deep analysis will be
provided in the discussion, touching also a little bit of the context previously mentioned.

The first metaphor shown in the lyrics is White lips, pale face, breathing in snowflakes,
meaning that the girl is so innocent but she’s deterioring herself due to the consumption of
crack. The second metaphor She’s in the class A-team makes reference to the type of drugs the
girl is addicted to; cocaine and crack can be classified into this category.
Following the workflow of the lyrics, the sentence Slowly sinking, wasting, crumbling
like pastries is comparing her fragility with the one of the pastries.
Moreover, another metaphor would be the sentence In a pipe she flies to the
motherland understanding that when she smokes she transports herself to her hometown, a
place of happiness for her.
Similarly, in the chorus another important metaphor can be found. It’s too cold outside for
angels to fly meaning that she is too young and innocent to make part of all this world of drugs
and prostitution. Finally, the last two metaphors are Call girl no phone, meaning that she is a
prostitute and the last sentence An angel will die covered in white making allusion to death by
drugs, also known as overdose.

DISCUSSION

After a deep analysis of the song and extracting all the metaphors the author wanted to
share, it is clear the message he wants to convey. The A team represents the story of a girl
from the suburbs whose life is completely involved by drugs, prostitutes and a lot of darkness,
but she is like an angel, a dim spot of light because she is slowly fading. Angel’s story and the
way is told will reach many people and help them tell their stories or get out of that world.
 In this song a total of eight remarkable metaphors have been found. By dint of these
metaphors, we can interpret the A team in such a clear way. The use of terms of white, pale,
sinking, wasting offer us a clear image of purity, innocence, fragility and insecurity the main
character of the song has. Also, she is a poor girl, who has no money to pay the rent where the
author makes this reference in the following sentence Light's gone, days end. Struggling to pay
rent. Long nights, strange men making allusion to the situation Angle is living in. She has to
prostitute herself to get some money and pay the rent, but there is no more hope, no more
happiness, she spends nights with strange men to get the money but wastes it in drugs. Then,
the constant allusion to drugs through the use of words and metaphors like snowflakes, class A
team, in a pipe she flies to the motherland or covered in white. All these words are used as a
way to represent cocaine and crack and its consequences like burned lungs and sour taste.
Furthermore, the fact he mentions motherland makes allusion to the previous life she had, the
happiness of hometown and it also explains how she has the necessity to drug herself for being
always high because in that way she is avoiding this life for which she is condemned. Finally,
he seems to be so sad because such a pure soul is going to die due to a overdose, because she
can not stand this world and this life anymore, in that way, she will die in an aura of happiness
crack provides her.

CONCLUSION

To conclude this analysis, we could highlight the importance of metaphors in songs, as

they help us to better understand the author and what he has to convey. In this case, Angel's
story had to be told and listened to, and personally I think that like me, many people will have
been touched by it. Because that is the power of music, and to be able to analyse it and
understand it in a better and more critical way, is amazing.
REFERENCES

Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Metaphor. Retrieved December 22, 2020, from
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/metaphor

F.A. (n.d.). Beyond the lyrics: Ed Sheeran - The A Team. Story of Songs. Retrieved December
22, 2020, from https://storyofsong.com/story/the-a-team/

Genius. (n.d.). Ed Sheeran: The A Team Lyrics. Retrieved December 22, 2020, from
https://genius.com/Ed-sheeran-the-a-team-lyrics#about

Glossary of Terms. (2003). What is Metaphor. Glossary of Linguistic Terms.

https://glossary.sil.org/term/metaphor

L. (2017, August 28). La razón por la cual Ed escribió The A Team. Amino.
https://aminoapps.com/c/ed_sheeran/page/blog/la-razon-por-la-cual-ed-escribio-the-a-team/qk
W2_LQ1CRunP5kvjzbG4WpZ24XLkPodlX5

McDonal, A. (2018, March 9). Ed Sheeran: The A Team. Lyric Review and Song Meaning.
Justrandomthings.
https://justrandomthings.com/2018/03/09/ed-sheeran-the-a-team-lyrics-review-song-meaning/

ScienceDirect. (2018). Critical Discourse Analysis. Science Direct Topics.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/critical-discourse-analysis

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Ed Sheeran. Retrieved December 22, 2020, from

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Sheeran
APPENDIX

THE A TEAM - ED SHEERAN LYRICS

White lips, pale face
Breathing in the snowflakes
Burnt lungs, sour taste
Light's gone, days end
Struggling to pay rent
Long nights, strange men
And they say
She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But lately, her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us
'Cause we're just under the upper hand
And go mad for a couple grams
And she don't wanna go outside tonight
And in a pipe she flies to the motherland
Or sells love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly
Ripped gloves, raincoat
Tried to swim, stay afloat
Dry house, wet clothes
Loose change, bank notes
Weary-eyed, dry throat
Call girl, no phone
And they say
She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But lately, her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us
'Cause we're just under the upper hand
And go mad for a couple grams
But she don't wanna go outside tonight
And in a pipe she flies to the motherland
Sells love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
An angel will die
Covered in white
Closed eyes and hopin' for a better life
This time, we'll fade out tonight
Straight down the line
And they say
She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But lately, her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
They scream
The worst things in life come free to us
And we're all under the upper hand
And go mad for a couple grams
And we don't wanna go outside tonight
And in the pipe, fly to the motherland
Or sell love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly
Fly, fly
For angels to fly, to fly, to fly
Angels to die