Magic and Metaphor in Songwriting

Have you ever wondered what it is about a song lyric that captures your imagination? Some lyrical phrases leave a stirring within us long after the song ends, while others leave us flat. What makes the difference?

One of our challenges as songwriters is to create an experience for our listeners without them feeling bludgeoned. We want our message to be subtle, so that it unfolds organically within them. A point that is too on the nose can come across as cliché or preachy. We want to give our listeners a chance for discovery, so that they can have their own experience with the song.

How do we do this?

Making a Lyrical Phrase Compelling through Metaphor

One answer to this question is something I know Pagans can appreciate – metaphor! After all, we are no strangers to speaking in symbolic languages. How does one talk about mystery? In the language of poetry, of course!

We write litanies to our Goddesses/Gods/Godx, calling up their presences with words that resonate with their nature. The language of poetry allows us to see between the cracks of habitual perception, to step between worlds, that we might experience this “time out of time” and the Presences who dwell there.

To give you an example of how metaphor works in songwriting, I’d like to share one of my newer songs with you. It is called “Fireflies” and you can listen to it here: https://sharonknight.bandcamp.com/track/fireflies , or here if you’d like to see the companion T-shirt: https://shop-sharonknight.com/collections/fireflies/fireflies

Fireflies and Friendship

Fireflies was written at the beginning of the pandemic. The theme of the song is friendship, and its ability to endure through periods of separation. Here are the lyrics:

Do you remember summertime
A gentle breeze blowing leaves in our wine
We laughed on the porch until the sun sank low
Not a care in the world, you know

Even when we are apart
I can feel you in my heart
You make me stronger

There is nothing you can say
To make me go my separate way
For long

We are Fireflies
Together we shine, together we rise
We are Fireflies
Forever entwined, lighting up the skies
With starlight glimmering in our eyes
Ohh ohh ohh… we’re fireflies

Sometimes I like to sit and dream awhile
Thinking of your incandescent smile
Knowing you are there, I know we’ll make it through
There’s no better time than me and you

If you’re afraid your fire is dying
And you’ve lost the will for flying
I’ve got your hand

When your color fades to gray
And you’re not sure what to say
You know I’ll understand

We are Fireflies
Together we shine, together we rise
We are Fireflies
Forever entwined, lighting up the skies
With starlight glimmering in our eyes
Ohh ohh ohh… we’re fireflies

The song is about friendship, yet the word “friendship” is never used. The friendship is symbolized by fireflies lighting up the skies. It illustrates, rather than telling listeners what the song should mean. It gives listener room for their own experience.

What do you feel when reading the first verse? “Do you remember summertime? A gentle breeze blowing leaves in our wine. We laughed on the porch until the sun sank low. Not a care in the world, you know.”

Take a moment before reading on.

For my part, I feel a bit of nostalgia. The lyrics evoke a memory of better times, without stating outright, “I wish we were together now”.

Our friend does not have a literal fire dying inside, nor can she really fly. But these images are more evocative than saying, “When you’re sad, I will be there for you”.

Metaphor allows us to paint a picture for our listeners, creating a visual space through which their own feeling-tones can emerge.

Effective use of metaphor takes practice, of course. The language of poetry is a lifelong art. To that end, I’d like to share a wonderful practice that will help us discover fresh new metaphors for all of our writing projects – be they songs, invocations, or books.

The Magic of Metaphor

Berklee College of Music professor and renowned songwriting coach Pat Pattison describes metaphors as “a collision between items that don’t belong together”. He says “it jams them together and leaves us to struggle with the consequences; for example: an army is a rabid wolf”.

Pattison teaches that there are three types of metaphor; Expressed Identity, Qualifying Metaphor, and Verbal Metaphor.

Expressed Identity

“x is y” (sorrow is a weeping willow)
“the y of x ” (the weeping willow of sorrow)
“x’s y” (sorrow’s weeping willow)

The weeping willow of sorrow bends her aching branches down to lie heavy on my soul.

Now try a few of your own. It might help to jot down a string of words first and then match them in ways that compel you.

Shadow – Time

Sunlight – Shower

Darkness – Friend (Darkness, darkness my old friend! We all know Paul Simon has a way with metaphor!)

Once you have 3-6 pairs of your own, plug them into the formulas and see if you can come up with a sentence like mine, above.

Qualifying Metaphors

Adjectives qualify nouns, adverbs qualify verbs. We can build metaphors by choosing unlikely adjective-noun or adverb-verb combinations.

Impatient snow. Brooding lamppost. Salty look.

Sing robustly. Stumbled stupidly. Swim overtly.

She stood solemnly over his snarled body and sang robustly in cascades of flowers.

Now try a few of your own.

Verbal Metaphors:

These are formed by conflict between the verb and its subject or object.

The dogs sailed across the lawn. Night has swallowed up the day. The fireplace belches up the dreams of trees.

To practice building metaphors, Pattison has small groups of people write out a series of word combinations. Half the group will compile a list of five interesting adjectives and the other half will compile five interesting nouns. Then the group comes together, combining the adjectives with the nouns in as many combinations as they can, and riffs on them, creating sentences or short paragraphs out of each combination.

This is also done with noun-verb combinations and noun-noun combinations.

If you don’t have a songwriting group, naturally you can do this yourself.

Once you are comfortable with creating metaphors from combinations of ten words, let go of the ten word limit. Let the whole world become your metaphor. Carry a notebook with you and spend ten minutes a day describing the world around you in the most compelling metaphors you can muster.

Is the day blustery? What does that bring to mind?

The angry wind roars his displeasure at the sky. He thundered down the stairs cursing the inevitable shipwreck of his career.

Is there a fountain on the lawn on a sunny day?

The cheerful fountain lilts a gentle flute of droplets over the sleepy sidewalk. The languid sun sighed away the lazy hours.

These unlikely word-poems reveal their stories in unexpected ways. Listeners and readers are propelled into “seeing sideways”; just as we are taught when learning to perceive magic. In this way, metaphor creates a “between the worlds” state, and the more we explore metaphor, the more our art becomes an act of magic.

For a much more detailed exploration of metaphor, I highly recommend Pat Pattison’s lyric tips on his website: https://www.patpattison.com/pat-s-lyric-tips

Would you like to make song-magic with me? I am developing a singing class called “Enchantment”; where we will approach singing and music through the lens of magic. If you would like to learn more and be notified when this class is open, please visit: https://sharon-knight.lpages.co/enchantment-class/

For more information about Sharon Knight, including her collected articles here on Pagan Song, her bio, and links to Sharon’s sites on the web, check out Sharon’s page on Pagan Song.

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