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Shamia Hossain

Professor Batty

English 102

19 September 2019

Value Things When You Have Them

The song I chose to analyze is “Let Her Go” by Passenger. This song has a clear meaning

and is written like a lyric poetry. The song has a rhythm in it such and last words of every stanza

rhymes with the next lines such as “Well you only need the light when it's burning low/ Only miss

the sun when it starts to snow”. [1-2] The melody of the song is acoustic soft melody which

complements the lyrics and give the lyrics proper meaning. The main theme of the song is when

you have something don’t take it for granted otherwise you may lose it, everything in life is not

constant or won’t last forever so value the things or person when you have them. The main idea of

the song is you don’t know the value of a person or thing until they’re gone or taken away so It is

better to appreciate everything and everyone when they’re in your life than regretting after you

lose them.

The author refers to many elements in this song that gives the readers a clear idea of its

theme since the lyrics of this song is very straight forward. There are some literary devices in this

song such as metaphor, personification, hyperbole and there’s repetition of few words. Some

examples of Metaphors are “Only need the light when its burning low/ Only miss the sun when it

starts to snow/ Only hate the road when you’re missing home”. [1,2,5] These lines express the

authors feelings of being upset and he refers to happiness or feeling good by using the words light
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or home. Light is always referring to hope of something and light is always missed when there’s

no hope or depression. The light is here used as a metaphor of something good that is gone from

his life and that’s why he now realized that the happiness is gone and the significance of light is

very important here as the author refers to it as a hope. Throughout the whole song, the author

refers to the things that we all miss at some point of our lives but only when it’s no more with us

or when we feel the need of it. The word home here is referred as a place of comfort that we miss

when we’re feeling down and looking for peace in life. When we look at the third stanza of the

song it gives us a message through these lines. “Staring at the bottom of your glass/ Hoping one

day you’ll make a dream last /But dreams come slow and they go so fast” [8-10] These lines sound

like a message that, if you keep hoping that your dreams will come true one day it will not be a

wise idea because to achieve something you must work towards it instead of just hoping for it to

happen. Because you can’t reach towards your dreams until you put on some effort to reach your

goals. There is also use of personification in line eight. The author says, “dreams come slow and

they go so fast” here the author personifies dreams as an object and said it comes and goes. We

can notice the use of hyperbole in line 13 “Everything you touch surely dies” things don’t die in

real when someone touches it so the author just used it to express the depth of his depression after

losing his loved one.

The author repeated the line “Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low”
The use of denotation is noticed when he said you feel high or low which refers to feeling good or
bad about something. Also, the reason he constantly used the word only is because you don’t
realize what you’ve lost unless it’s been gone. The use of only here is intentional so that the
listeners can relate to the song and the situations he was describing in the song such as “only need
the light. /only miss the sun.../Only hate the road../ only know you’ve been high.” These are the
situation everyone can relate because at some point of our lives we all feel depressed or sad about
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losing someone and something and when we’re in that situation or overcome the situation we don’t
understand what we’re losing. There’s also a very important thing to notice in this song. “Well you
see her when you fall asleep/ But never to touch and never to keep/ 'Cause you loved her too much
and you dive too deep”. [23-25] These lines tell the readers that he didn’t lose her because he didn’t
love her he lost her because he loved her too much and he was so deep and serious about it but still
he lost her. These lines also mean that he dived too deep into the relationship that he didn’t realize
how it would be at the end if he loses her.

The whole song is basically telling us about how a person has gone through heartbreak
and many difficulties but he didn’t realize the after effects or consequences of the situation when
he was into it. This song also has a very strong message about life that everyone can related at least
at some point. The main theme of this song is based on a heart broke that the author has gone
through but also gives us a message that we should not take anything for granted because you
realize the value of a person or thing when they’re gone. Losing something precious from your life
makes you realize how much that meant to you and how much you appreciated that person or an
important thing. So, everyone should appreciate their loved ones when they’re with them before
it’s too late.
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Work Cited

"Let Her Go Lyrics." Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2019. Web. 15 Sep. 2019.
<https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/34015150/Passenger>.
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Let Her Go

Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you're missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go

Staring at the bottom of your glass

Hoping one day you'll make a dream last
But dreams come slow and they go so fast
You see her when you close your eyes
Maybe one day you'll understand why
Everything you touch, oh it dies

But you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you're missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

Staring at the ceiling in the dark

Same old empty feeling in your heart
'Cause love comes slow and it goes so fast
Well you see her when you fall asleep
But never to touch and never to keep
'Cause you loved her too much and you dive too deep
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Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you're missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go
Oh oh oh no
And you let her go
Oh oh oh no
Well you let her go

'Cause you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you're missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

'Cause you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you're missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go