This was for a reading assignment. I had to proove that The Man Who Sold the World is a poem.

I found out it's really by David Bowie. OH well.

When I first read 'The Man Who Sold the World' by Nirvana, I was utterly confused. How in the world was this a poem? After going though it for long periods of time, I am now certain that Kurt Cobain's writing is in fact poetry. How, you ask?

First of all, the song contains a very smooth rhyme scheme. Each seperate verse has four lines in the form of a quatrain. Verse one begins as 'a a b c ', and verse two as 'd d e f '. When you speak each word out loud, you begin to notice a trochaic foot dominate the rhythm. For example:

"We passed upon the stair, we spoke of was and when
Although I wasn't there, he said I was his friend
Which came as a surprise, I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone, a long long time ago..."

Another interesting factor is that both stanzas each have exactly twelve syllables per line. Go ahead---test it! With the chorus, it alters; line one contains four syllables, line two has six syllables, line three goes back to four syllables, and line four ends off the stanza with seven syllables. If you get involved in the math of it all, the total of these comes up to twenty-one. In reverse, the number twenty-one turns to twelve. See the similarities?

Of course, there is a small portion of repitition. When line four of both verses states, "a long, long time ago", the word long is repeated. Otherwise, the only other part to the song that could quite possible have repitition as well is when it says, "face to face" in the chorus. Clearly, he is repeating the word face.

It appears that there are hyperboles, too. The first one can be found in verse one on line three. He claims he "spoke into his eyes". I don't know about you, but I've never been able to literally go into someone's eyes an speak to them! The other two are on verse two in lines two and three. He says, "for years and years I roamed" and how he "walked a million hills". I find that hard to believe.

One of the most remarkable things I discovered in this poem was that throughout it's narration, the poet goes through a slight switch in mood as he tells his story. In the beginning, he is just having a casual conversation. Suddenly, the man he is speaking to claims that he is his friend. This comes as a surprise as he states through the way he--pay attention to the exagerration (as mentioned before)--"spoke into his eyes". This evokes a sort of tone to how he is saying what he said, bringing emotion to the reader when he mentions to the man how he thought he had died alone. When the chorus arrives, the man responds in defense that "we never lost control". If you continue thought the passage, he transitions this story of the man to his own story, leaving you to believe that they were both spirits discussing their deaths, especially when he explains how he went back home. It turns out, believe it or not, that he is searching for land. It is safe to infer that the home he once lived in is no longer there, and that something happened to it in which he was unaware of (like his death, possibly?). I believe that he didn't even know he died!

'The Man Who Sold the World' is something I can easily refer to as a form of poetry, as it shares a poem's factors. From quatrains to hyperboles--you can see a brilliant piece of literature.