For my poem analysis I chose House of Gold by Twenty One Pilots.

 

The lyrics:

She asked me, “Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?”

She asked me, “Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?”

I will make you queen of everything you see,
I’ll put you on the map,
I’ll cure you of disease.

Let’s say we up and left this town,
And turned our future upside down.
We’ll make pretend that you and me,
Lived ever after happily.

She asked me, “Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?”

I will make you queen of everything you see,
I’ll put you on the map,
I’ll cure you of disease.

Ohhhh…
And since we know that dreams are dead,
And life turns plans up on their head,
I will plan to be a bum,
So I just might become someone.

She asked me, “Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?”

I will make you queen of everything you see,
I’ll put you on the map,
I’ll cure you of disease.

 

 My Four Square Analysis:

 

Imagery and Figurative Language:   “And when your father turns to stone” metaphor. “I will make you queen of everything you see” metaphor “I’ll put you on a map” “I’ll cure you of disease” “Will you buy me a house of gold” “Since we know that dreams are dead” Metaphor.	Tone, Attitude: Mournful / anticipative “Make pretend that you and me / lived ever after happily” apprehensive. They use this setting to show painful and gloomy tone, but still feeling a tad of hope or faith. The artist uses this tone and feeling in their song to display their emotions while they sing the lyrics.
Style: 9 stanzas. Rhyme scheme: -AABC -ABA -AABA Concrete. The artists use these formats because they believed it is the best way to get their point across.	Interpretation: Will you choose between your life or your family? This poem is for the writer’s mother. It rotates around the event of death. The poem means to me a son caring about his mother after his father’s death, while also trying to think about his own future.

 

The song “House of Gold” by Twenty One Pilots is a concrete poem based entirely on a metaphor, beginning with the title. The two members of Twenty One pilots, Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph, both pursue a career in music, but this song seem to show their split hearts between their lives and their family.

The song starts of mournful, nearly anticipative, as it starts off with “She asked me, “Son, when I grow old, / Will you buy me a house of gold? / And when your father turns to stone, / Will you take care of me?”” The house of gold is a metaphor for a perfect life, and as the mother speaks as if she anticipates her husband turning into a statue, in literal terms she’s referring to his death. Through the next stanza, “I will make you queen of everything you see, / I’ll put you on a map, / I’ll cure you of disease,” we can read that the writers are willing to spoil their mothers’ rotten, but it seems just a bit too hyperbolized; as though said more out of desperation rather than truth wise.

It is through the fourth stanzas that we start to get a sense of contradictory to what was written beforehand, “Let’s say we up and left this town, / And turned our futures upside down.” The two lines stating together how they want to stay with their family, but if they stayed with their family they would have to give up their dreams, in result wrecking their futures in the music career. “We’ll make pretend that you and me, / Lived ever after happily,” Here comes more proof of the perhaps desperation of reassurance rather than honestly in these lines; although at the same time shows a sliver of hope or faith behind the words, that maybe the words could be true, leaving the song with a painful or gloomy tone; at the same time given off a sliver of faith through the cracks. I think the artists used this tone and feeling in their song to display their inner emotions while they read it themselves, confliction, confusion.

Near the end of the poem we start to notice some reoccurring factors, the subject the poem revolved around being death, that the song is for their mothers, and the dilemma the artists seem to face. The metaphor, “and since we know that dreams are dead, / And life turns plans up on their head,” nearly seem to voice a defeat of stepping away from their careers and to cave completely to family; while “I will plan to be a bum, / So I just might become someone.” Is like they pause for a moment, think about it, and restate their desire, and give themselves a second chance, changing the tone back to something more hopeful.

In conclusion, to me this song is about a son struggling to care for his mother after his father’s death, but while he is also trying to think about his own future in the process. I think this poem is trying to say to do what you want with your life; but really in the end, will you choose between your life or your family?

analysis-house-of-gold