What Will Your Verse Be?

Lyrics and Poems are quite similar.  Both engage their readers and listeners on an emotional level. Both have life lesson hidden in them. They are both artistic and express feelings. Tone sets the feeling of the poem.  Theme tells us the overall story or message that the poem or song is trying to convey.  In Barbie Doll, a young girl is judged through out her life for not being considered what was "perfect".  In "Suicide Note" by Janice Mirikitani it shows a girl who feels she is a disappointment to everyone around her and can no longer handle the pressure of life.  In Simple Plan's song "Perfect" they talk about how a child just wants to make their dad proud and they feel like they do not.  


In the "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy she tells us a story about a young girl being compared to a barbie doll.  The tone she creates is dark, judgmental and sad.  This girl possesses so many good qualities but she is forced to be confined to what society thinks she should be.  The overall theme is society is not accepting of people who do not represent the "ideal" women.  " She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity"( Piercy 7-9).  This shows she was smart healthy and was healthy.  This should be more than acceptable for qualities a women should have.  Sadly, it was not after her classmate told her she had a great big nose and fat legs, that stayed in her head forever.  She tried everything she could to change who she was and be more like "barbie".  "Her good nature wore out like a fan belt" ( Piercy 150).  Just like a fan belt wears out from overuse, so did her nature.  She could not take society's pressure to be the "ideal" women anymore.  Society put so much pressure on her to be perfect, that she ended up killing herself.  


The tone of this poem is dark and sad.  Just like in the "Barbie Doll" in which the girl was being judged by society, the young woman in "Suicide Note" feels she is being held to a standard that she cannot live up to.  She feels she is a disappointment to her parents,"not good enough not pretty enough not smart enough ,dear mother and father. I apologize for disappointing you. I've worked very hard, not good enough harder, perhaps to please you." She feels that she was never good enough for anyone and was always trying to please her parents.  The poem goes on how to talk about maybe if she was a boy she would be smarter or more successful and just keeps saying she is not good enough.  Society and her parents surely held her to high standards, but the person who held her to the highest standards was herself.  She ultimately could not satisfy her own.  So the theme of this poem is not necessarily society judging and holding the young girl to high of standards, It is she who does that.


The song has the same tone as the two poems.  It is sad and dark.  It also makes you feel there is a level of defeat.  "Hey dad look at me,Think back and talk to me,Did I grow up according to plan?And do you think I'm wasting my time doing things I wanna do?But it hurts when you disapprove all along, And now I try hard to make it, I just want to make you proud, I'm never gonna be good enough for you, I can't pretend that, I'm alright, And you can't change me." This shows a child just wanting to make their father proud.  They tried to go according to plan but the father disapproves all along.  It seems no matter what the child does or how hard they try it was always be a failure in the father's eyes.  This is similar to the other two poems in that all 3 works are searching for acceptance,approval,success and to be loved for who they are.  Sadly, they don't achieve what they wanted.


Lyrics to Simple Plan's "Perfect"     "Suicide Note"