AS Language and representation

 

I thought that I'd been hurt before
But no one's ever left me quite this sore
Your words cut deeper than a knife
Now I need someone to breathe me back to life

Got a feeling that I'm going under
But I know that I'll make it out alive
If I quit calling you my lover
Move on

You watch me bleed until I can't breathe
Shaking, falling onto my knees
And now that I'm without your kisses
I'll be needing stitches
Tripping over myself
Aching, begging you to come help
And now that I'm without your kisses
I'll be needing stitches

Just like a moth drawn to a flame
Oh, you lured me in, I couldn't sense the pain
Your bitter heart cold to the touch
Now I'm gonna reap what I sow
I'm left seeing red on my own

By this song being about a heart break it can relate to many people and the use of the metaphor ‘your words cut deeper than I knife’ emphasises the pain he is going through with the noun ‘’cut’’. The adjective ‘deeper’ suggests that the pain is internal and has engraved him, due to the noun ‘‘knife’’ having the connotations of scars and violence.  By the line starting with the determiner ‘‘your’’ makes the audience connect with what is about to be said, as we do not know who he is addressing this too specifically; making us want to engage with the lyrics. The use of personification in the line after extends on how painful the heartbreak was for him as he states ‘I need someone to breathe me back to life’. This implies that he felt as though he has been killed and the verb ‘’breathe’’ suggests that it took all the life from him. This will make the receiver either feel fortunate to not be in that situation or, on the other hand, relate to him. This is not what you expect as he is singing about a certain someone who did this to him. However it does affect multiple audiences.

In the third verse, the singer uses a simile at the beginning. He uses the noun of a ‘’moth’’ to relate himself to which shows how powerless he feels, because the adjective ‘’drawn’’ implies he had no will-power. The connotations of the noun ‘’flame’’ are adjectives like burning, adverbs like dangerous and nouns like ash which are all negative. However, the singer knows that the flame is dangerous as he says ‘I couldn’t sense the pain’. This may be confusing for the audience if they have never been through this because even though he knew it was dangerous, he still went there.

In the chorus  the line ‘ I’ll be needing stiches’ is repeated twice which then gets you locked onto those words. The commanding form of this statement is quite aggressive which would suggests that he is getting stressed. But it  does not come across in this way as he has used the contraction ‘I’ll’, which makes it less formal. Because of this the noun ‘needing’ sounds less forceful.