I'm no linguist, but it's pretty well-known that the English language has never been set in stone. A great example of this is in poetry. Below, there is a Thoreau poem (from the 1800s) on the top in red and the Poetry Out Loud favorite "300 Goats," which was published in 2016, in blue.
Indeed indeed, I cannot tell,
Though I ponder on it well,
Which were easier to state,
All my love or all my hate.
Surely, surely, thou wilt trust me
When I say thou dost disgust me.
O, I hate thee with a hate
That would fain annihilate;
Yet sometimes against my will,
My dear friend, I love thee still.
It were treason to our love,
And a sin to God above,
One iota to abate
Of a pure impartial hate.
In icy fields.
Is water flowing in the tank?
Will they huddle together, warm bodies pressing?
(Is it the year of the goat or the sheep?
Scholars debating Chinese zodiac,
follower or leader.)
O lead them to a warm corner,
little ones toward bulkier bodies.
Lead them to the brush, which cuts the icy wind.
Another frigid night swooping down —
Aren’t you worried about them? I ask my friend,
who lives by herself on the ranch of goats,
far from here near the town of Ozona.
She shrugs, “Not really,
they know what to do. They’re goats.”
In the Thoreau poem, there are words like 'dost,' thee' and 'thou' - all are characteristic of that older American style that sounds a lot more sophisticated. In 300 Goats, there is an 'O', but there are some more modern words in there too, like 'really' and 'aren't', which make the poem sounds a lot more casual.
This isn't just in poetry, though. As our world has become seemingly more relaxed and casual, the lyrics of prominent songs have also become more relaxed and casual. Once again, on the top in red is the first verse of Francis Scott Key's "The Star-Spangled Banner", and on the bottom in blue is the first verse of Drake's "God's Plan".
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
I been movin' calm, don't start no trouble with me
Tryna keep it peaceful is a struggle for me
Don’t pull up at 6 AM to cuddle with me
You know how I like it when you lovin' on me
I don’t wanna die for them to miss me
Yes I see the things that they wishin' on me
Hope I got some brothers that outlive me
They gon' tell the story, sh*t was different with me
Again, over 200 years makes a big difference. Francis Scott Key put a lot of words ending with an apostrophe and a 'd' - seemingly a staple of older English. However, Drake uses shorter-than-usual words ending in an 'n' and then an apostrophe, uses much more modern words such as 'cuddle', and even curses - something I seriously doubt Francis Scott Key would've ever done in any of his lyrics.
So, to sum it all up, it appears that, as the world has become more relaxed, our music has, too. We've moved from using older, fancier English to newer, different English, with different words and incorporating a much different style. All of this shows that we're a lot less uptight as a country, which really makes sense. Unlike back in the late 1700s and early 1800s, we're not engaged in any conflicts, we've become much more accepting of different races and personalities, and we're just a lot less strict, which I think is a great thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment