CategoriesTextLyrical device
Text

Lyrical device

Literary and rhetorical techniques used in the lyrics

19
values
299
total uses
Nineteen devices in the words turn up across 164 Beatles recordings. 89 of their recordings use anaphora, more than any other, ahead of wordplay on 21 and double meaning on twenty. 'Rock and Roll Music' and 'Good Morning Good Morning' are two of the 89. The rarest is chiasmus, on two, 'All You Need Is Love' and 'Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey'.
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'We Can Work It Out' (1965) is the earliest Beatles song to use antithesis as a lyrical device.

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All Values(19)

#ValueSongs% of total
1Anaphora

Repetition of the same word(s) at the start of successive lines or clauses, creating rhythmic insistence (e.g. Because: 'Because the world is round... Because the wind is high...').

89
29.8%
2Double meaning

A line carries a second reading the surface sense conceals.

20
6.7%
3Wordplay

The words are played with for their own sake: puns, invented compounds, choices driven by sound.

21
7.0%
4Simile

Explicit comparisons using 'like' or 'as'

20
6.7%
5Extended metaphor

A sustained metaphor carried across multiple lines or the entire song

19
6.4%
6Personification

Non-human things given human qualities - the sun smiles, loneliness talks

13
4.3%
7Pastiche

Affectionate imitation of an existing style or genre.

13
4.3%
8Beatles reference

The lyrics quote or nod to another Beatles song.

12
4.0%
9Alliteration

Repeated consonant sounds at the start of nearby words for rhythmic effect

12
4.0%
10Rhetorical question

A question asked for effect rather than for an answer, where the asking itself carries the point.

11
3.7%
11Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate sounds - bang, buzz, tick-tock

11
3.7%
12Irony

The lyrics say one thing but mean another - sarcasm, understatement, or deliberate contradiction

11
3.7%
13Non-Beatles reference

The lyrics quote or nod to a song by another artist.

10
3.3%
14Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or comic effect.

10
3.3%
15Epistrophe

The same word or words repeated at the end of successive lines, the mirror of anaphora, as in 'I love you, I love you, I love you' closing one phrase after another.

7
2.3%
16Antithesis

Contrasting ideas set in parallel for effect (e.g. 'love is old, love is new').

7
2.3%
17Ring composition

A section opens and closes on the same word or phrase, returning to where it began.

6
2.0%
18Anadiplosis

Repetition where the last word(s) of one line become the first word(s) of the next, chaining lines together - e.g. '...end of the road / The road that goes...'.

5
1.7%
19Chiasmus

A phrase or clause is repeated with its key terms reversed, e.g. 'all you need is love / love is all you need'.

2
0.7%