Language and style
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Playing with language
Bruce Springsteen plays with language quite a lot in “The River”. First, the title of the song becomes a symbol for youth and teenage dreams. Notice th…
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Tense of the verbs
The song presents a combination of tenses, namely present tense simple and past tense simple. Both tenses depict different aspects of the narrator’s life. When present tense is employed, the narrator presents the “tradition” of his p…
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Type of words used
The majority of the nouns employed by Bruce Springsteen in his song are important because they are symbols. As we have mentioned before, the river becomes a sy…
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The style of the song
“The River” is quite a sad song. It presents the way in which hopes and dreams have disappeared once difficulties…
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The mode of expression
The song is, basically, an account of the narrator’s l…
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Sentence structure
Some sentences in “The River” have colloquial grammatical structures, such as “ain’t been” (l. 21) or “she don’t care” (l…
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Repetition
As with almost every song, “The River”…
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Irony
Irony is quite obvious in “The River”. With sadness and regr…
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The effect of the language
The song is very lyrical and intense…