One Life
"One Life" is a poem written by the artist know as The Last Emperor, an African American musician who was born and raised in the city of New York. The Last Emperor uses very poetic verses in his music to convey a particular message to his audience. Unlike many hip-hop musicians, The Last Emperor refuses to use vulgar language in his music. He is trying to break the stereotypes that come along with rap or hip hop. Often, people think that hip hop is vulgar and degrading to women, but that's not what this hip hop music is about. He uses particular metaphors and rhyme schemes to create mental imagery in the readers mind. I also have my interpretations of the tone and ideas of his poetry. The verse that I have analyzed focuses on a event that takes place in the Last Emperors' life when he found out he had cancer in his liver. The very first line in his poem, "paralyzed on the bathroom floor by pain"(line 1) gives the reader the thought a very dark and gloomy tone to the poem. The word paralyzed is a very powerful word, and to be paralyzed by pain would be the most torturing pain one could ever experience. Line four also describes the pain he is experiencing, " feels like rail road spikes being stuck in my liver" (
In order to make his poem stand out from others, The Last Emperor uses mental imagery, similes and metaphors to demonstrate the importance of a particular verse in the stanza. This will support the importance of the message he is trying to convey. " Rush me to emergency screamin like a new born" is an example of how much pain he was suffering. This is a direct comparison as to what his screaming sounded like or similar to. He uses this form of writing so he can connect with his audience, by giving the reader a direct mental picture, they are able to sympathize with him. Each individual can imagine the pain in their minds eye. Every reader creating a different mental picture. The mental imagery is a key ingredient to connecting to his audience. The Last Emperor uses a very free flowing rhyme scheme in his work. Although there are misspelled words in his poetry, he is doing it intentionally. This allows his poem to flow with the same rhyme scheme all the way through. Some of the words for an example are" startin, callin, dyin, cryin, burnin," and there is a few others through out the poem, but they aren't always the last word in the line like most traditional forms of poetry. You can find them throughout the poem. There is no significant order that I recognize, unless you take all of the words and look at them individually, then you will see that they are descriptiv
Some common words found in the essay are:
York Emperor, Waitin EMS, Literary Terms, African American, Life Life, mental imagery, rhyme scheme, hip hop, feels rail road, strong mental image, mental image, word paralyzed, pain grief, traditional forms, mental picture, found cancer, liver line,
Approximate Word count = 925
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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