Monday, November 22, 2010

Song Analysis 2: "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" by Elton John


"The Lion King" is a classic Disney movie that portrays themes of honor, loyalty, bravery, but most of all, love. One of the many ways love is displayed in the film is through the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," written by Tim Rice and performed by Elton John. The song fits easily into the storyline of the two main characters and their unconditional love for one another. Its lyrics and melody significantly help to enforce the movie's main theme of this universal emotion. In Elton John's rendition of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," Tim Rice's lyrics display striking metaphors that give rise to an overall message of love's unstoppable power and ubiquity despite the tribulations and hardships often presented in life.

The song's metaphorical lyrics work to emphasize the strength of love. In the beginning of the song, Rice describes "An enchanted moment" where there is "a calm surrender/To the rush of day." These lines explain the peaceful refuge that love represents to the speaker; his lover offers an escape from the battles that he, a "restless warrior," has to fight in his life. He says that love is "where we are"; it surrounds and encompasses the couple, also contributing to the idea that their relationship is able to shelter them, if only momentarily, from the problems they face in the outside world. Later in the song, the speaker says that "There's a time for everyone,/If they only learn/That the twisting kaleidoscope/Moves us all in turn." Here, the song shifts from a personal explanation of love to a universal explanation, claiming that all people will eventually get to experience this kind of unconditional and omnipresent love in their lives. Fate, "the twisting kaleidoscope," gives everyone in the world "a time" to truly feel love the way the narrator does. These metaphors praise love and its ability to affect people in such a positive way.

With the help of various metaphors, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" presents an optimistic outlook because of love's presence in life. The way love is expressed in the song, it has the power to mitigate pain and shelter from life's many obstacles. It has a profound effect on the narrator, who believes it will one day have a profound effect on all people. Through the song, listeners are shown that with love, anything is possible.

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