Poetry Project

Jonathon Woolsey

Poem (song): “It’s Not My Time”Written by Brad Arnold, Preformed by 3 Doors Down

Looking back at the beginning of thisAnd how life wasJust you and me and love and all of our friendsLiving life like an oceanNow the currents slowly pulling me downIt's getting harder to breathIt won't be too long and I'll be going underCan you save me from this?

'Cause it's not my time,I'm not goingThere's a fear in meIt's not showingThis could be the end of meAnd everything I knowOh, I won't go

I look ahead to all the plans that we madeAnd the dreams that we hadI'm in a world that tries to take them awayOh, but I'm taking them backAll this time I've just been to blind to understandWhat should matter to meMy friend, this life we liveIs not what we have, it's what we believe

“It’s Not My Time” cont.

It is not my time

I'm not going

There's a fear in me

It's not showing

This could be the end of me

And everything I know

But It's not my time

I'm not going

There's a will in me

Now I know that

This could be the end of me

And everything I know

Oh, I won't go

I won't go

There might be more than you believe

(There might be more than you believe)

There might be more you can see

“It’s Not My Time” cont.

But it's not my timeI'm not goingThere's a fear in meIt's not showingThis could be the end of meAnd everything I knowBut it's not my timeI'm not goingThere's a will in meNow it's gonna showThis could be the end of meAnd everything I know

There might be more than you believe(There might be more than you believe)There might be more than you can see

But I won't go!No I wooooon't gooooo down!

Novelistic Approach

This song starts out as the main

character is thinking back on past

memories that portrays him as carefree.

Protagonist: A man who fears death or a

man who is dying and fighting to live.

Antagonist: Death or fear of death

Setting: No specific setting; just his life

itself.

Speaker: The man

The man that lived life carefree finds out

that he is dying and is in denial of it. He

tries to deny it, but realizes that he truly will

die.

This man then decides that he is truly going to

fight his death and he continues to say that it’s

not his time to die. He is going to live life to

the fullest no matter what and reach all of his

past goals.

The man then lives life like every day

could be his last and meets all of his past

goals while the illness worsens. He still

fights death.

After a long time of fighting death,

this man dies. Even though he dies,

he lived life to the fullest while

being careful of everything he did.

He learned that you cannot live life

carefree without paying for it in the

long run.

Realistic Approach

In my life, this poem relates closely to how my grandmother was before she passed away. She tried every way to fight her cancer because she didn’t feel that it was her time to go and she tried to do many things that she wanted to do before she died. This is very similar in the way the man did in this poem. He states quite frequently that “it’s not my time,” and he says that he is going to reach his goals that he had recently made no matter what. These two factors tie in the bond between my grandmother’s life and that of the man’s life in the poem.

Thematic Approach

The theme of this poem is:

Live life to the fullest while realizing that you are not indispensible.

This theme is simply saying that you should live life to the highest value but at the same time you should not be careless about it. At the beginning of the poem (song) it talks about how the man lived life carefree (line 4). It then goes into where it talks about he regrets doing so and that he is now going to do the right thing and accomplish the goals of his past (2nd verse). It then states over and over throughout the poem that he won’t go and it’s not his time until he accomplishes these things.

Allusion Approach

A perfect literary allusion to this poem is the movie,

A Walk To Remember. The main character in this movie is a teenage girl that has Leukemia. She meets a boy and falls in love, and she shows him a list of things she wants to do before she dies. The girl accomplishes all of the goals before she dies. This is very similar to the protagonist in the poem. He too tries to accomplish his goals before he passes away. He doesn’t feel that it’s

his time to die until he meets all the goals of his past.

Musical Approach

The rhythm is primarily written in 4 feet iambic in each line. However it changes in the sixth line in the chorus and lines 4, 6, and 7 of the first verse. This could be used just to have emphasis on those few lines. The rhythm almost feels like ocean waves until it’s interrupted when the tide becomes stronger in the first verse. There is no specific rhyme scheme but there are some places it rhymes. The chorus’ rhyme scheme is ABCBCDD. Some of the repeated choruses is a variation however. The second verse’s rhyme scheme is ABABCDED. Some examples of alliteration in the song is “Living life like an ocean,” and “I’m in a world that tries to take them away.” Some examples of assonance is “Living life like and ocean” and “This could be the end of me.” Some examples of consonance is “I’m in a world that tries to take them away,” and “Is not what we have, it’s what we believe.” The of all these different devices creates first and ocean-like feel to it and then all of a sudden it’s like the water begins to strength as the rhythm changes a bit. The author uses some of the rhyme and rhythm changes to add to the mood of the song. After line 4 in the first verse, the rhythm changes specifically to add to the “strengthening of the water.” He primarily made these changes to change the flow of the words as the reader says them.

English Teacher Approach

Looking back at the beginning of thisAnd how life wasJust you and me and love and all of our friendsLiving life like an oceanNow the currents slowly pulling me downIt's getting harder to breathIt won't be too long and I'll be going underCan you save me from this?

'Cause it's not my time,I'm not goingThere's a fear in meIt's not showingThis could be the end of meAnd everything I knowOh, I won't go

I look ahead to all the plans that we madeAnd the dreams that we hadI'm in a world that tries to take them awayOh, but I'm taking them backAll this time I've just been to blind to understandWhat should matter to meMy friend, this life we liveIs not what we have, it's what we believe

Simile/ Personification/ Alliteration

Hyperbole

Alliteration

English Teacher Approach cont.

• It is not my timeI'm not goingThere's a fear in meIt's not showingThis could be the end of meAnd everything I knowBut It's not my timeI'm not goingThere's a will in meNow I know thatThis could be the end of meAnd everything I knowOh, I won't go

I won't go

There might be more than you believe(There might be more than you believe)There might be more you can see

Repetition

Parallelism/ Repetition

Anaphora

English Teacher Approach cont.

• But it's not my timeI'm not goingThere's a fear in meIt's not showingThis could be the end of meAnd everything I knowBut it's not my timeI'm not goingThere's a will in meNow it's gonna showThis could be the end of meAnd everything I know

There might be more than you believe(There might be more than you believe)There might be more than you can see

But I won't go!No I wooooon't gooooo down!

Parallelism/ Repetition

Anaphora

Repetition

English Teacher Approach

The writer of this poem, uses this figurative language sparingly but effectively. Whenever he uses figurative language it really helps the reader imagine what’s going on in the poem (line 4 really does this). Even though the figurative language the author uses in the poem doesn’t affect the outcome or meaning of the story, it still adds the new dimension to the poem by being very detailed. The tone of the speaker is changed by the figurative language because it makes the speaker seem like he is really remembering past memories by the detailed figurative language. When the author says in Line 4, “Living life like an ocean,” you can really envision the fact that he lived a carefree life. The author used figurative language sparingly, but wisely.

Significant Event Approach

The author of this poem, Brad Arnold, probably wrote this poem that takes place in a recent time. Brad Arnold is the lead singer in the band 3 Doors Down and the writer of the song “It’s Not My Time.” As most people, Arnold has had people very close to him die. This song was probably written in memory of a close family member of friend. Obviously this song is dedicated to someone and it takes place in modern times of America but really can relate to anyone in the world. The song really wasn’t written to take place in a specific time frame of our history.

Art History Approach

In the song “It’s Not My Time,” there is plenty of imagery written in this song to help the reader envision what is going on. Most of the imagery is found in the verses but not the chorus of the song. For example, even though this is a figurative language, it is also an image. Line 4 says, “Living life like an ocean.” This paints the picture of someone who is living very carelessly and having a good life. As the verse moves on it talks about the current getting stronger it begins pulling the man down. This is like death trying to take him down, but he refuses to die. Then the speaker says, “Can you save me from this,” which really paints a picture in the mind of the reader seeing this man getting pulled down by this force and him asking for help out of this turmoil. The writer uses these images primarily in the first verse where he is trying to get the reader to see that this man is struggling and is finding no results.

Structural Approach

The writer also uses shifts in this song many times to have an affect on the reader. After line 4 in the song, he begins to have a harsh, kind of scared tone while he is talking about how the current is gaining strength and is pulling him down. In addition to this, every time the song goes back to the chorus the song has shifted to the positive tone of the speaker where he is saying that it’s not his time and he’s not going anywhere. Whenever the song goes into the reprise, “There might be more than you can see”, the song is shifting in a narrative tone telling you this from the man’s experience. All in all, this author used shifts primarily to change the mood and tone of the speaker.