Analyzing Evergeen [English Ensemble]

[ch*yeuk]

(I know this may be asking for much.. gomen ne, I don't know what to do.. and how to start this. Please don't just ignore my help..?)
I really like the song Evergreen, it's a very moving song so I chose it for an English assignment. I am stuck and confused though.. yehh I'm not very good at English X_o
What's the song about? It sounds he he's writing about .. just life in general and how it's never changing? Who's the child he's talking about or is it just a metaphor?

So full of joy you are a child of spring
With a beauty that is pure
An innocence endures

How does the sound devices used effect the song? I've found many alliteration, rhyme, assonance.. simile, metaphor. I'm not sure what they mean..

I lie awake beside the windowsill
Like a flower in a vase
A moment caught in glass

- does that mean something like he's waiting for something to happen..? Like a flower in a vase on a windowsill. A moment caught in glass, everything is quiet.. and seems like time paused?
Are there any figures of speech? Apart from similes and metaphors.. did I miss a personification or whatever somewhere?
What's the overall meaning? Is this a sad song.. or a happy one? Sounds sad, but the lyrics sound happy, except of the mention of pain and tears.. but there was sunshine and the like.
And lastly, how would I persaude my teacher to like the song?

I lie awake beside the windowsill
Like a flower in a vase
A moment caught in glass.. Mmm
The rays of sunlight come and beckon me..
To a sleepy dreamy haze
A sense of summer days.. aa
If only I could stop the flow of time
Turn the clock to yesterday
Erasing all the pain.. mm
I've only memories of happiness
Such pleasure we have shared
I'd do it all again
This scenery is evergreen
As buds turn into leaves
the colours live and breathe
This scenery is evergreen
Your tears are falling silently
So full of joy you are a child of spring
With a beauty that is pure
An innocence endures.. aa
You flow right through me like a medicine
Bringing quiet to my soul
Without you I'm not whole
This scenery is evergreen
I need you far too much
I long to feel your touch
This scenery is evergreen
You've always been so dear to me
This scenery is evergreen
It sorrows at the sight of seeing you so sad
This scenery is evergreen
I wish that I could dry your tears
The bells have rung the time has come
I cannot find the words to say my last goodbye
This scenery is evergreen
You've always been so dear too me

 

[Kinsao]

Here's my two cents worth! I'm only going off what is written here, though - I have the song but I've only heard it once.

The words start off sad... well no, happy and sad together, because "The rays of sunlight come and beckon me / To a sleepy dreamy haze / A sense of summer days" gives an impression of happiness and contentment - but very shortly after, he sings about wishing to "stop the flow of time", go backwards and "erase all the pain". So we get the idea that the happy feelings are actually in the past and just something he is thinking of and wishing for. This gives the song a melancholy tone instead.

Then (as I read it), the lyrics give a more hopeful impression. With the line "I'd do it all again", that's making it clear he's still reminiscing, but then it goes on to "The scenery is evergreen". That's optimistic, of course, because evergreen means the leaves that don't die. So I find myself cheered and curious when reading it, like 'huh? it's going to be ok after all?'. Then when he goes on to sing about buds turning into leaves and the colours "live and breathe", it conjures up a picture for me of springtime scenery, of things growing, of life and hope. In fact, an impression of things starting newly, rather than being over.

The song also mentions tears, at this point, but they are tears of joy, and actually the image of water droplets here makes me think of dew or soft spring rain (or maybe that's just me getting way too carried away in this, hehe), something that even contributes to the 'growth' idea.

Even the lines "Without you I'm not whole / This scenery is evergreen / I need you far too much / I long to feel your touch" retain the positive feeling for me, because although it's kind of yearning, it doesn't actually say in so many words that they are going to be parted for ever.

However, the past tense is brought back with the line "You've always been so dear to me", and, together with the lines before, it feels like the mood of the song is descending again into sadness. He also personifies the scenery with the line "It sorrows at the sight of seeing you so sad"... and this line adds another dimension to the narrative, because up until now it appeared as though the writer was sad, but the person he was thinking about was crying for joy ("Your tears are falling silently / So full of joy you are a child of spring"). Now, though, instead of talking about his own sadness he writes "I wish that I could dry your tears".

We take away the impression that they are both sad... therefore, that they have to be apart against their wishes somehow. I don't understand exactly what he means when he writes "The bells have rung" (probably a symbolism I don't know of), but in my mind it creates a slightly funereal image. This could be backed up by the phrase "last goodbye", but that's a bit far-fetched (even for Kinsao! XD).

Well, that's my overall thoughts on what the song is about, and whether it is happy or sad (I think 'sad' on the whole, even though savage imagery isn't used, because the outcome is sad). Now about some of your other questions...

I think the word "child" is used to convey the innocence of the person he is writing about. It's also possible he is writing about an actual child - e.g. having to be parted from his son or daugher. The phrase "child of spring", as well as suggesting innocence, purity and freshness, also has (to me) a kind of mythological feel to it, as though the person is a mysterious creature born of nature, as though "spring" was a goddess or something.

You've already picked out the sounds - rhyming, alliteration, assonance... There is a lot of the repeated 'eee' sound (e.g. "scenery", "evergreen", "leaves", "breathe" etc.) that you must have noticed. I don't think that the different sound devices 'mean' anything as such - the repeated 'eee' makes quite a gentle sound, which fits with the mood of the lyrics, but beyond that I can't say (maybe I'd know better from listening to the song). I know from singing that the vowel 'eee' has more high harmonics on it than other vowels, but I really don't think there's any particular significance attached to that...

You asked about the meaning of "a moment caught in glass", and suggested it was about waiting, which is a good reading... I also feel that it's about something being preserved, because something caught in glass is unable to move and also sealed from air (in fact, trapping something in glass, or in a glass bubble with an airless vacuum inside, is actually a way of preserving something; my mom has a rose preserved that way). So this implies keeping something, and memories.

Phew! I had to think about that! You haven't chosen an easy lyric to analyse, with its changes in mood. Well, thanks for posting this - my brain needed some exercise! Takes me back to English Lit A-level class, when we used to have to do on-the-spot analysis of poems and snatches of prose... I really enjoyed it, but it's not usually the kind of thing you set yourself for fun, so thank you for giving me a mental workout!

Hope I haven't talked too much drivel...