Yesterday’s post was about storytelling and poetic devices in Taylor Swift’s “Ronan.” Last night I showed it to Pauline, my eleven-year-old daughter, thinking I could use the lesson for my middle school students and the enrichment class I’m currently teaching. Pauline liked the lesson, but she remarked that other Swift songs told more complete stories. She was thinking of “All Too Well,” but there’s no way I’m subjecting twelve-year-olds to a ten-minute song, not with their attention spans. Plus, it’s a little adult.
However, I did think of my favorite song by Swift, which is “Betty.” It tells a very complete, detailed story, and it also uses the same poetic devices as “Ronan,” like imagery, rhyme & near rhyme, hyperbole, simile, and anaphora. It’s also maybe a bit adult for tweens, but not too bad.
I created a template to write your own song/poem, as well as my own (somewhat embarrassing) example. But I find it a lot of fun to take a deep dive and understand the formula she uses.
To view the color-coded lyrics and template, click here.
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