Lyric Analysis of Enough

I’ve highlighted the word “you” because it indicates, to the audience, that this song is being sung to a specific person who is anonymous to them. This “you” is a mystery to anyone listening to the song and so it creates intrigue. The reason this works so well and gauges the audience’s attention is because humans are naturally full of curiosity and like to become involved in situations. The fact that this song is being sung to someone specific also means that the person singing the lyrics has been affected in some way by them. We are hearing the story from the artist’s point of view and because the lyrics are emotional we feel as though we are being confined in. Yes we are only hearing one side of the story and are only revealed half of the emotion but we still feel sympathy and are therefore drawn in to the song. 

Next I have highlighted the word “enough”. This word appears initially in the third line of the first stanza. The reason this is significant is because the title of the song is “enough” which means the audience will have picked up on it straight away. The title of a song is usually ambiguous before the whole song has been listened to because there isn’t any meaning behind the words and so the lyrics of the song give the name some context, it’s where the audience can put the jigsaw pieces together and see the bigger picture. 

The word “but” has been signified because of audience expectation. Connecting words such as, but, however, although and yet are words that can cause suspense, this is because of their potential. When someone hears the word like “but” they will hang on every word that follows; it could be something fantastic or, more often than not, bad. It shows that people again can really connect with this song as it interests them.

The question marks are incredibly important to mention. Throughout the whole song the majority of the content is questions and this means reactions are evoked. By the artist asking this anonymous person questions the audience turn the circumstance around to see it from their point of view, as though the artist is asking them directly instead. This aspect of the song is very clever because it draws out empathy from the audience, they cannot help but feel for both “characters” in the story and really engage with what is being said from that point on. It also makes them reflect on their own lives and relate the question to them which plays an important part as by associating the lyrics to different people’s lives will mean that those people are more likely to remember this song and re-watch the video, therefore it will have repeat-ability. 

The reason I have highlighted the word “so” is because it actually affected me. For some reason this word really struck me as odd. I realise that the whole song is a one sided hypothetical conversation but I feel like the word “so” is too colloquial and casual for the amount of emotion that is being portrayed with the rest of the lyrics. It is also the fact that “so” can be used in conversation in order to change topic or move on. I think that this word perhaps foreshadows what is to come of this story, a break up will occur and the “characters” in the story will move on with their lives. If the audience also feel this then I think they will not like this word either. As I mentioned earlier, humans are full of curiosity, yet we are also full of hope and I feel there is always that little part of us that will hold on, especially to the ending of this song. The words “needed” and “anymore” also do not help with the feeling of wanting there to be a happy ending because they are in the past tense which indicated that what the audience fear has already happened.      

Repetition has been used for the lyrics “maybe I wasn’t what you were after at all” and this is a very powerful aspect which brings the song alive.   I find the repetition emphasises the point, heightens the drama, and ties all the elements together. A famous and brilliant use of repetition is found in a speech Winston Churchill delivered in 1940, when Nazi Germany was threatening to conquer England: “We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence …we shall defend our island…. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields …we shall fight in the hills …We shall never surrender.” Churchill's repeated use of the phrase “we shall fight” gave both rhythm and power to his words. Repeated words can set up a rhythm that adds to the language's musical quality, focuses the message, and supports the melody and I think this is exactly what was achieved with this song.