"Wake Me Up" lyrics
Portraying a classic love story in "Wake Me Up", Ed Sheeran utilizes a multiple person narrative point of view, whimsical imagery, and pleasant symbolism to display his infatuation with a girl that never realizes "just how beautiful" she truly is.
Portraying a classic love story in "Wake Me Up", Ed Sheeran utilizes a multiple person narrative point of view, whimsical imagery, and pleasant symbolism to display his infatuation with a girl that never realizes "just how beautiful" she truly is.
Sheeran
employs various uses of symbolism to represent the speaker’s love he possesses
for his girlfriend. Scientifically factual, a snowflake is unique and has no
exact copy. Sheeran’s speaker refers to the girl that “maybe [she’s] [his]
snowflake.” He feels as though this girl is his own unique human being, and he
loves her. Snowflakes also symbolize a light mood, representing the playful
relationship the two share. The speaker goes to the beach and discovers a
pebble. “I’ll carve it like a necklace,” the speaker proclaims, “so the heart
falls where [her] chest is.” Sheeran’s speaker shapes the once ordinary pebble
into a heart shaped necklace, symbolizing their pure unity as she now only needs
to “breathe to feel [his] heart against [hers].” The wholeness he feels towards
his girlfriend is clearly evident with his strong, yet charming actions. The
speaker alludes that he would like to marry this woman as he “could do without
a tan / on [his] left hand, / where [his] fourth finger meets [his] knuckle.”
The pale band around his ring finger signifies the place where a wedding ring
would be. After years of timeless wearing of the ring, it would become paler
than the rest of his finger. Symbolism is deliberately placed into Sheeran’s
lyrics to show the affection the speaker has for his girlfriend, who is
oblivious to his strong feelings.
Imagery
is employed by Sheeran to have the song obtain a lighthearted sound for
listeners. A background fact of Sheeran is he has a sleeve of tattoos, one of
the tattoos literally saying “your name”. He playfully inserts a reference to
his tattoo: as “[he] should ink [his] skin with [her] name,” while making it
blend with the meaning of the song. One can imagine the tattoo of the girl’s
name on the speaker’s body, an everlasting, permanent signification of his love
for her. The speaker revisits the light concept of winter with his sweetheart.
As they spend time together, he realizes “[her] eyes turn from green to gray /
in the winter.” Sheeran’s speaker notices the small things about his
girlfriend, something majority of people would never notice about this girl.
The little characteristics he observes about her validate he loves everything
about her, even the minuscule details. The speaker, once again continues to
admire his partner with a subtly inserted, but powerful compliment. He watches
her and remarks that she “should never cut [her] hair / ‘cause [he] loves the
way [she] flicks it off [her] shoulder.” The listener pictures the lightness of
flipping hair, providing the connotation of cheeriness, representing the cute
relationship the speaker and the girlfriend have. Painting the image of the
speaker’s adoration of his girlfriend through the use of bright imagery,
Sheeran utilizes his lyrics to make the listener envision numerous scenes.
Ed
Sheeran applies the use of a multiple person narrative point of view to
generate the speaker’s knowledge of his girlfriend and their long-time
relationship. The ideal that the two have been dating for a long time is formed
as Sheeran’s speaker talks to the girl saying: “I know you love Shrek / ‘cause
we’ve watched it twelve times.” Directly speaking to his partner, the speaker
creates the background of the two having lazy days, simply enjoying each
other’s presences while watching Shrek together. Another playful image is
created between the two lovers as the speaker describes their silly time
together as her brother is always beating the speaker at video games. Expressing this
statement to his girlfriend, the speaker says he “chuck[s] all the
controllers at the TV / and then you[’d] laugh at me.” He speaks to her
personally about one of their intimate experiences that signifies a funny
moment they can reminisce on together. The speaker puts more weight on the
statement to his girlfriend: that “maybe I’m just in love / when you wake me
up.” Heavily proclaimed, whenever he feels as though he is not truly committed
in this relationship, the speaker realizes that when he wakes up beside her,
everything is perfect. Her presence in the morning gives him the sense of
safety and the feeling of rightness. Sheeran uses a multiple person narrative
point of view, of first to second person, to portray the tender, light-hearted
moments the couple share between just themselves.
In
“Wake Me Up”, Ed Sheeran illustrates two lovers', “hoping for a fairy tale”, playful relationship, which is strictly intimate between the speaker and his
girlfriend. “Wake Me Up”, one of Sheeran’s lesser known songs, contains
pleasurable symbolism, dainty imagery, and multiple person narrative point of
view to convey the affectionate devotion the speaker has towards his
girlfriend. All of these elements produce a composition of lyrics that are
pleasant and create a cute air to accompany the soft melody of the song. Each
component contributes to the meaning of the song: that the speaker is
ultimately in love with everything about his girlfriend. Sheeran’s dynamic
lyrics provide the listener with a lovely piece of music that describes a
charismatic relationship.
