The greatest similarity the poem and song share is the theme of abuse. The song tells a story of a young girl who is abused by her stepfather: "He touched her places that he shouldn't have touched/ he did some things to her he shouldn't have done." The poem also addresses abuse by comparing women to drums: "If the drum is a women/why are you pounding your drum into a insane/babble."

In the poem and the song repetition is used to make the messages stronger. The poem repeats the line "don't abuse your drum." The poem wants it to be clear to the reader that abuse is wrong. Also the line "and making a drum tragedy of drums" is recurring, to strengthen the point of the poem. In the song, the chorus

Another likeness of the two pieces is the strong emotional tones. The words of the song tell an emotional story of a young girl's life with abuse. Words such as "cry" and "anger" are emotional. The emotions makes a listener who is in the same situation understand it is not her fault. The song also encourages the young girl to continue to be proud and love herself. The general emotion of the song is sadness. The poem also shares use of emotion to persuade the abuser to ask himself why he abuses women. The poem tells the abuser why he should not mistreat women and gives consequences to actions of abuse. The poem also persuades the abused to relieve themselves of the bad situation. The poem uses strong words like "flames' and "crazy" to increase emotional tone.

However, the approach of the two pieces differ. The song is targeting an audience of young women and the song tells a story of a young girl who is molested by her stepfather. The girl in the song had no support in her situation: "She told her mother, her family, and friends/ No one believed her." Because no one believed her, the girl begins to put herself in abusive situations: "Thought that all she had to offer was her body/ She rebelled and one day the young girl fell in love with another man like her step dad/ He abused her emotionally

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jayne Cortez, Women Abuse, Beyounce Knowles, poem song, abusers victims, abuse poem, tells story girl, girl song, song tells story, abuse women, abusive situations, story girl, tells story, you're beautiful, drum poem,
Approximate Word count = 881
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)