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Thunder Road

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Submitted By cainpt
Words 1531
Pages 7
Patrick Cain
Craft of Language: Poetry
Professor Lewis

THUNDER ROAD by Bruce Springsteen
Thunder Road is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written. The song is a ballad that tells the story of the main character, Mary, her boyfriend, and their one shot to get out of their “town for losers.” Springsteen’s use of rhyme scheme, imagery, and personification, and simile among other elements add to the song’s theme of youths in love, restlessness, and willing to get to where they want to be. The song incorporates a very simple rhyme scheme of AA BB CC DD. Springsteen used this simple rhyme scheme to make the song sound young and simple. The simple rhyme scheme makes it as if the song is written by a young person who is not trying to be too complex and is just trying to get convey his point to Mary, the girl he is singing to. There is obvious meter to the song as well, as it follows a simple rhythm, which also accentuates the simplicity of the song as if it were written by a kid. Throughout the song, Springsteen repeats the phrase, “Oh thunder road, oh thunder road, oh thunder road.” The phrase could be used in a literal sense to describe where Mary and her boyfriend are driving, or even the road that they are using to escape from all of their problems. Thunder road is the place that they want to get. Springsteen writes, “Riding out tonight to case the promise land.” It is almost as if thunder road is their promise land, and if they don’t get to it, they will be trapped in the, “town for losers,” forever. During the second verse after the song, Springsteen sings about all the eerie sights, visions and dreams that are left over in their town. He personifies, the burned-out Chevrolets, saying that they “haunt the dusty beach road.” He does this to show that there is nothing left in the town for them. Along with all the

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