David Bowie Five Years Analysis

Five Years of Analyzing... The song “Five Years” is a dramatic story told by Bowie. The song tells us about earth beginning to die, and in five years time, it will be gone. The song goes on to then tell us about all the things that happen in the world when the news is broken to them by the newsman on the tv. The stylistic choices used by speakers and songwriters help give the song/poem depth, purpose and add emotion. David Bowie uses stylistic choices in the song “Five Years” to add meaning to the song and add to the overall structure by telling a story of earth dying and reactions of people after hearing the tragic news. He uses mood, tone, imagery, and rhyme scheme to convey a story to entertain, create emotion, and evoke questions within the listener. In “Five Years”, by David Bowie, he uses Imagery to add to the overall structure and add meaning to the song. In the first verse, he describes how people reacted when they found out by using senses sight and sound. For instance, he stated, “Pushing through the market square, so many mothers signing.”

Rhyming serves the purpose of making a song more interesting. David Bowie begins the song with a scheme of AAAA, where he says, ¨So many mothers sighing¨, ¨We had five years left to crying¨, ¨Earth was really dying,¨ and ¨Then I knew he was not lying.¨ There is no pattern with rhyming in the poem until the last stanza, which used the rhyme scheme of AABBCC. He rhymed talk with walk, eyes with surprise, and lot with got. He uses rhyming to add emphasis and attraction to certain parts of the song. In this case, rhyming in the first stanza was used to catch the attention of the listener. In the end, He used rhyming to add emphasis on the main idea, which was there are only five years left, so live it while you can. Readers respond by becoming interested in the song more. David Bowie uses rhyming to aid the poem