Grammar, Language in 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'
2023-12-22
LRC
TXT
大字
小字
滚动
全页
1Many Americans will travel over the winter holidays, often to return to the homes and towns of their childhood.
2For people from the state of West Virginia, and wider Appalachia, one song comes to mind on the trip home: Take Me Home, Country Roads.
3Singer John Denver co-wrote and performed the 1971 song.
4It became a major hit.
5Recently, my favorite singer, Lana Del Rey, recorded her version of the song after performing in West Virginia in October.
6In today's Everyday Grammar, we will look at parts of the song performed by Del Rey and connect it to grammar and figurative language.
7Let's look at the first verse of the song.
8Almost Heaven, West Virginia
9Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
10Life is old there, older than the trees
11Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze
12In the first verse we have a couple of comparisons.
13One comparison uses an appositive as metaphor.
14The others use comparative adjectives and even a simile.
15Appositives are nouns or noun phrases that go beside another noun to describe it.
16Sometimes we can use the appositive structure to create a metaphor.
17"Almost Heaven, West Virginia" is a metaphor using an appositive.
18Here, our subject is "West Virginia" and the appositive is "Almost Heaven."
19The appositive is giving more information about "West Virginia."
20The comma takes the place of the typical verb used to make metaphors, "be."
21West Virginia is almost Heaven.
22Almost Heaven, West Virginia
23"Heaven" is a perfect place. Many cultures and traditions uphold it as a beautiful, holy place people go when they die.
24So, if West Virginia is "almost heaven," its natural landscape of mountains and rivers and trees must be a holy place of beauty.
25Next, we have a comparison of "life" in West Virginia.
26It is "older than the trees" and "younger than the mountains."
27"Older" and "younger" are comparative adjectives.
28Comparative adjectives compare one thing to another.
29They help express whether something has more or less of a particular quality.
30The song suggests the ancient history of the land.
31Scientists say the mountains began to develop about a billion years ago.
32Life began sometime after that but before the growth of trees, the song goes.
33And the mountains and life continue into the future, the song then suggests.
34The writers used the simile, "growing like a breeze," to express this idea.
35A simile is a figure of speech in which unlike things are compared with the use of the words "like" or "as."
36Breezes come and go and sometimes grow into a stronger wind.
37This verse could mean that life and land grow with ease in West Virginia.
38Let's move onto the chorus of the song.
39Country roads, take me home
40To the place I belong
41West Virginia, mountain mama
42Take me home, country roads
43In the chorus of the song, we have an interesting grammatical feature and some figurative language.
44We have an imperative structure that is repeated in the beginning and end of the chorus:
45Country roads, take me home
46Take me home, country roads
47Imperatives are predicate-only clauses used to give instruction, direction or command.
48Imperative sentences use the base form of the verb and may have other information.
49We know that this song was written about a road trip through the mountains and rural communities.
50The singer seeks direction from the "country roads," themselves, to find the way home.
51We also have more figurative language.
52The writers refer to West Virginia as "mountain mama."
53This is an example of personification or the human representation of a non-living thing.
54The reference humanizes West Virginia and suggests that it is the mother of mountains.
55But, it uses the more childlike term, "mama" for mother.
56The word expresses hominess, warmth and nostalgia.
57Today we looked at the beloved song Country Roads.
58We found figurative language like metaphors using appositives and personification, which is the humanizing of non-living things.
59We even found some interesting grammar with the use of comparative adjectives like "younger" and "older" to describe life in West Virginia and imperatives or commands to give direction through the "country roads."
60I'm Faith Pirlo.
1Many Americans will travel over the winter holidays, often to return to the homes and towns of their childhood. For people from the state of West Virginia, and wider Appalachia, one song comes to mind on the trip home: Take Me Home, Country Roads. Singer John Denver co-wrote and performed the 1971 song. It became a major hit. 2Recently, my favorite singer, Lana Del Rey, recorded her version of the song after performing in West Virginia in October. 3In today's Everyday Grammar, we will look at parts of the song performed by Del Rey and connect it to grammar and figurative language. 4Let's look at the first verse of the song. 5Metaphors, appositives, and comparative adjectives 6Almost Heaven, West Virginia 7Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River 8Life is old there, older than the trees 9Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze 10In the first verse we have a couple of comparisons. One comparison uses an appositive as metaphor. The others use comparative adjectives and even a simile. 11Appositives are nouns or noun phrases that go beside another noun to describe it. Sometimes we can use the appositive structure to create a metaphor. 12"Almost Heaven, West Virginia" is a metaphor using an appositive. Here, our subject is "West Virginia" and the appositive is "Almost Heaven." The appositive is giving more information about "West Virginia." The comma takes the place of the typical verb used to make metaphors, "be." 13West Virginia is almost Heaven. 14Almost Heaven, West Virginia 15"Heaven" is a perfect place. Many cultures and traditions uphold it as a beautiful, holy place people go when they die. 16So, if West Virginia is "almost heaven," its natural landscape of mountains and rivers and trees must be a holy place of beauty. 17Next, we have a comparison of "life" in West Virginia. It is "older than the trees" and "younger than the mountains." "Older" and "younger" are comparative adjectives. 18Comparative adjectives compare one thing to another. They help express whether something has more or less of a particular quality. 19The song suggests the ancient history of the land. Scientists say the mountains began to develop about a billion years ago. Life began sometime after that but before the growth of trees, the song goes. 20And the mountains and life continue into the future, the song then suggests. The writers used the simile, "growing like a breeze," to express this idea. 21A simile is a figure of speech in which unlike things are compared with the use of the words "like" or "as." 22Breezes come and go and sometimes grow into a stronger wind. This verse could mean that life and land grow with ease in West Virginia. 23Let's move onto the chorus of the song. 24Imperatives and personification 25Country roads, take me home 26To the place I belong 27West Virginia, mountain mama 28Take me home, country roads 29In the chorus of the song, we have an interesting grammatical feature and some figurative language. 30We have an imperative structure that is repeated in the beginning and end of the chorus: 31Country roads, take me home 32Take me home, country roads 33Imperatives are predicate-only clauses used to give instruction, direction or command. Imperative sentences use the base form of the verb and may have other information. 34We know that this song was written about a road trip through the mountains and rural communities. The singer seeks direction from the "country roads," themselves, to find the way home. 35We also have more figurative language. The writers refer to West Virginia as "mountain mama." This is an example of personification or the human representation of a non-living thing. 36The reference humanizes West Virginia and suggests that it is the mother of mountains. But, it uses the more childlike term, "mama" for mother. The word expresses hominess, warmth and nostalgia. 37Final thoughts 38Today we looked at the beloved song Country Roads. We found figurative language like metaphors using appositives and personification, which is the humanizing of non-living things. 39We even found some interesting grammar with the use of comparative adjectives like "younger" and "older" to describe life in West Virginia and imperatives or commands to give direction through the "country roads." 40I'm Faith Pirlo. 41And I'm Anna Mateo. And we're both from West Virginia. 42Faith Pirlo wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English. 43___________________________________________ 44Words in This Story 45figurative - adj. used with a meaning that is different from the basic meaning 46verse - n. writing in which words are arranged in a rhythmic pattern: poetry or song 47breeze - n. a gentle wind 48metaphor - n. a way of describing something by comparing it with something else that has some of the same qualities using the verb "be" 49simile - n. an indirect comparison using "like" or "as" 50particular - adj. used when you want to talk about one thing or a certain kind of thing rather than ones that are similar 51chorus - n. part of a song that is repeated; a large organized group of singers 52What do you think of this story? We want to hear from you. Write to us at learningenglish@voanews.com or leave us a comment below. 53We want to hear from you. 54Our comment policy is here.