Life & Songs Of John Winston Ono Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in the United Kingdom, Liverpool, He was an English singer, songwriter, and peace activist. John was one of the founders of the Beatles, along with his friends called the “Quarrymen”The Beatles were voted the Greatest Rock and Roll Artists of all time by Rolling Stone, and Lennon being voted as the 38th Greatest Rock and Roll solo Artist He had divorced his first wife of six years, Cynthia Lennon, After leaving the Beatles, he worked together to create songs with his second wife, who he had married in 1969On December 8, 1980, he was tragically murdered at the age of 40 by a mentally unstable fan in New York City.

Today, Lennon is widely known for leaving behind his legacy of pop culture and music. Lennon was also part of the Quarrymen, Plastic Ono Band, and the Dirty Mac. Later in life, Lennon found out he had dyslexia Part two- Poetic devices John Lennon uses poetic devices to further embellish the message being carried in the song “Imagine”. John uses similes to amplify the perception of unity. He says, “And the world will be as one”, (line 16) which is directly correlating the world as being together using the term “as”. Hence, it carries the message of unity using simile as the world is being compared to the idea of the people of earth unifying in harmony by behaving as a single entity. Overall, Lennon uses simile to help with heightening the message of togetherness in the song.

Additionally, hyperboles are used throughout the song to further expand the concept of hope and unity. As proof, he uses the sentence in the fourth stanza “Sharing all the world”. Therefore, it is an exaggeration of the main concept of sharing our troubles and equal responsibility. Moreover, this shows by dividing our pain we could all see the world with the same vision, so we could all protect each other and the earth. Overall, by using hyperbole to intensify the phrase, Lennon is able to further convey a message of making the world a better place.

Lastly, Lennon particularly makes use of repetition through the song as an effective way to promote the message of hope, peace, and unity. He uses the term "Imagine" an additional four more times. It underlines the significance of the word, to spread a greater message to inspire readers to dream of the idea of how peaceful life would be in a world that was united instead of divided from things such as, possessions, religion, and borders. Therefore, Lennon was able to use repetition to strengthen the idea of unity, portrayed through the song.

Themes

The main theme of the song is Moving the world towards unity, and hope through "Imagining" a world that is not divided. The song is used to represent these main issues and the poetic devices are used to intensify the message. The line “Imagine all the people living for today” demonstrate if we were to strive for what’s best for today instead of the afterlife, hence “Imagine there’s no heaven”. Lennon then says imagine a world without countries. We fight many wars in the name self-pride. Political borders are why we are seen separate from the rest of the world because of the different races and nationalities. If we were to dream of the world as one nation, there would be "Nothing to kill or die for".

When we are told to dream a world without possessions, or greed. Lennon is asking for us to erase a problem preventing us from reaching peace. If we were to see from a perspective where we did not own anything, we would end up "Sharing all the world", causing us all to feel the same pain and would claim responsibility, and only when we get there we would be able to achieve world peace. The chorus serves the idea that if overcoming these obstacles seem doubtful, our individual hopes for a greater life will be shown by working towards peace as one entity. Overall, Lennon informs listeners of his message of attaining unity and peace to awaken hope, which will only occur once we all put aside our worldly opinions through working together.