Sunday, November 10, 2013

Lost It All

by Black Veil Brides

Lyrics:
(1) I ruled the world.
With these hands I shook the heavens to the ground.
I laid the gods to rest.
I held the key to the kingdom.
Lions guarding castle walls.
Hail the king of death.

(7) Then I lost it all
Dead and broken.
My back's against the wall.
Cut me open.
I'm just trying to breathe,
Just trying to figure it out
Because I built these walls to watch them crumbling down.
I said, "Then I lost it all."
And who can save me now?

(16) I stood above
Another war,
Another jewel upon the crown.
I was the fear of man.
But I was blind.
I couldn't see the world there right in front of me.
But now...I can...

(23) 'Cause I lost it all
Dead and broken.
My back's against the wall.
Cut me open.
I'm just trying to breathe,
Just trying to figure it out
Because I built these walls to watch them crumbling down.
I said, "Then I lost it all."
And who can save me now?

(32) I believe that we all fall down sometimes
Can't you see that we all fall down sometimes?

(34) I believe that we all fall down sometimes
Can't you see that we all fall down sometimes?

(36) I believe that we all fall down sometimes





I chose this song not only because of the power behind it musically and that it's one of my favorite songs by my favorite band, but because of the message behind it and the lyricism that makes it what it is. The basic premise the song seems to carry is that of a person in power who became blind to what it meant to hold it and it all came falling down around them. They lost sight of what was important and don't know how to cope and gain back any ground. The tone of the speaker suggests this and that of melancholy and a desire for what was lost.
Imagery is one of the strongest aspects of this piece. The first stanza alone opens up with lines that give the image of a strong person taking the world on and ruling an impressive kingdom. "With these hands I shook the heavens to the ground" and "I laid the gods to rest" show his strength before the fall and "Lions guarding castle walls" gives the reader that exact image. "My back's against the wall" and "I'm just trying to breathe, / just trying to figure it out" give the reader the image of someone in a panicked state trying to sort through everything that happened and trying to find out what went wrong and where. "Another war, / another jewel upon the crown" and "Because I built these walls to watch them crumbling down" are just more examples of the strange images that work in the song to guide the reader to see the world that the speaker lived in.
The biggest part of this song, though, is the figurative language used. The entirety is basically just one big metaphor for the things that people have to go through in life. The speaker of this poem is that of a man who was about questioning society and making something new of himself, of making waves and believing in himself. The reason why this song speaks so much to me is because he takes richer images to express those thoughts and makes the whole message more impacting as a result. Line 2, "With these hands I shook the heavens to the ground", is a metaphor for taking commonly held beliefs in the world and rattling them, of bringing the high opinions of others to the ground for a reality check, so to say. "I lay the gods to rest" means much the same, that he put down old beliefs or superstitions. When the speaker "loses it all", he brings in the images of walls crumbling, these walls representing everything he has worked for and built up in his life to get to the position he was in. The third stanza shows someone looking back on what they had had and finally realizing it for what it was worth. The language used here shows the reader a strong man standing tall over what he has accomplished, someone of importance that people looked up to and either feared or respected, but who only saw the next victory or prize to be one, not the things that were really important. The lines 17 and 18 are important in that they show the mind set of the speaker before his fall. "Another war" is representative of another conquest for the speaker, something new for him to challenge and either destroy or take over. That victory is portrayed as "another jewel upon the crown" meaning that it is one more thing to show off to those around him, one more thing to hold over others. His thirst and desire to become something big and important, his drive for power, resulted in his blindness he references, making him unable to see the truly valuable things.

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