My Featured Song

7 Years by Lukas Graham

Once I was seven years old, my mama told me Go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely. Once I was seven years old.

It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger. Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker. By eleven smoking herb and drinking burning liquor Never rich so we were out to make that steady figure Once I was eleven years old, my daddy told me Go get yourself a wife or you'll be lonely. Once I was eleven years old. I always had that dream like my daddy before me So I started writing songs, I started writing stories Something about the glory, just always seemed to bore me Cause only those I really love will ever really know me Once I was twenty years old, my story got told Before the morning sun, when life was lonely. Once I was twenty years old. I only see my goals, I don't believe in failure. Cause I know the smallest voices, they can make it major. I got my boys with me atleast those in favor And if we don't meet before I leave, I hope I'll see you later. Once I was 20 years old, my story got told I was writing about everything, I saw before me Once I was 20 years old. Soon we'll be 30 years old, our songs have been sold We've traveled around the world and we're still roaming. Soon we'll be 30 years old. I'm still learning about life My woman brought children for me So I can sing them all my songs And I can tell them stories most of my boys are with me Some are still out seeking glory And some I had to leave behind My brother I'm still sorry Soon I'll be 60 years old, my daddy got 61 Remember life and then your life becomes a better one I made the man so happy when I wrote a letter once I hope my children come and visit, once or twice a month Soon I'll be 60 years old, will I think the world is cold Or will I have a lot of children who can bore me Soon I'll be 60 years old Soon I'll be 60 years old, will I think the world is cold Or will I have a lot of children who can bore me Soon I'll be 60 years old Once I was seven years old, my mama told me Go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely Once I was seven years old Once I was seven years old

I. About the Song

"7 Years" is a song by Danish soul-pop band Lukas Graham from their second studio album, Lukas Graham. The song was released as a digital download on 18 September 2015 by Copenhagen Records. The lyric video was uploaded to YouTube on 17 November 2015, and the music video was uploaded on 15 December 2015. It topped the charts in Denmark, Sweden, Austria, New Zealand, the UK, and Canada, while reaching the top ten in order European countries, as well as the United States.

Lukas Graham got the call that his dad died. But it wasn't until about a year later thet he stared processing his grief through songwriting, the result of which is "7 Years": a wistful pop ballad about growing up and getting old. Since its release last fall, the track has climbed to No.3 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and sold 659,000 downloads, according to Nielsen Music.

Works Cited （参考文献）

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Years_(Lukas_Graham_song)>

<http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/03/21/lukas-graham-7-years/81687920/>

II. About the Songwriter

Graham grew up in Christiania, a self-governing artistic community in Denmark, and started singing with the Copenhagen Boys Choir when he was 8 years old. The freedom and creativity that environment fostered "gave me a lot of my backing, in terms of people encouraging you to do what you want to do and be an artist," says Graham, 27 (whose full name is Lukas Graham Forchhammer).

Living abroad in Buenos Aires and New York after high school, he eventually moved back to Denmark and started a band, which shares his name and consists of drummer Mark Falgren, bassist Magnus Larsson and keyboardist Kasper Daugaard. They posted a performance of one of their first songs, Criminal Mind, on YouTube in 2011, and two years later, signed to Warner Bros. Records in the USA.

Lyrically, the songs often deal with relatable experiences like growing up poor ("Mama Said") or drinking ("Drunk in the Morning").

2011-12 Career beginnings
2012-14 Continued touring and Warner Bros. record deal
2015-     Worldwide debut, "7 Years" and global success

Works Cited （参考文献）

<http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/03/21/lukas-graham-7-years/81687920/\>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukas_Graham>

IV. My Reaction

A. Reaction Point - Theme

• The central idea of a song's lyrics
• 7 years old, 11 years old, 20 years old, 30 years old and 60 years old are written.
• The main theme of his song that the life of the person and memories and thought at the age of each age. It is written about view of life in the lyrics that he wrote triggered by death of father. This song is made to think about the life.

B. Reaction Point - Song verse

• Sections of song lyrics that don't repeat
• "Once I was seven years old, my mama told me go make youself some friends or you'll be lonely. Once I was seven years old."

          "Once I was eleven years old, my daddy told me go get yourself a wife or you'll be lonely.            Once I was eleven years old." and so  on.

• It is common that the lyrics of the phrase repeated many times of the middle of the music are the same, but all this music becomes different a little. However, we can hear it without feeling a sense of incongruity because this song written without disturbing an atmosphere of the music.

C. Reaction Point - recording mix

• The balance and arrangement of voices and instruments in a recording 
• We're easy to hear it and enter straight and have a voice speaking to us. The thought of the lyrics comes thanks to the piano more and a few sadness and painfulness come.

D. My General Opinion
I think some love of father and mother to be a felt song.
The song was easy to hear it because there was simple English and remained in the ear, I came to like it.
One person life written until 20 years old, but we could sympathize with the lyric.
The common and ideal life is written from 30 years old in this song, so I think about myself life.
I like this song because the melody is comfortable.

My Featured Poem

To Be Or Not To Be

- A soliloquy from William Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet'

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?

To die: to sleep;

No more; and, by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished.

To die, to sleep;

To sleep perchance to dream, ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause.

There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The pangs of disprized love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin?

Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And make us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And Is sicklied o'er

With the pale cast of thought

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn away,

And lose the name of action.

I. About the Poem

"To Be Or Not To Be" is the most famous lines in Hamlet.
"Hamlet" is a drama that can be variously interpreted by the person's point of view.
"Hamlet" was written by William Shakespeare around 1600.

Works Cited （参考文献）

"To Be Or Not To Be" Wikipedia. 19 Oct. 2016. 

<https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8F%E3%83%A0%E3%83%AC%E3%83%83%E3%83%88>

II. About the Author

William Shakespeare(26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.
He wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear" and "Macbeth", considered some of the finest works in the English language. 

Works Cited （参考文献）

"William Shakespeare" Wikipedia. 19 Oct. 2016. 

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare>

IV. My Reaction

A. Reaction Point - Symbolism(象徴性)

In this poem, Shakespeare uses symbolism.
Symbolism is used when something represents more than itself.
"To die, to sleep" is used several times. It expresses a symbol.

B. Reaction Point - Form(形式)

In this poem, Shakespeare uses form.
For example,there are "And by~" and "And make~", "And is~", "And enterprises" in this poem.
He uses some "AND" at the beginning of a line.
You become easy to read by it.

C. Reaction Point - Appeal(魅力)

In this poem, There is appeal point.
Appeal is attractiveness that interests or pleases or stimulates.
Appeal point is "To be, or not to be". We get it in various meanings. For example, this means is "You should live, or should I die?" or "You should achieve revenge of father, or is it not so?" It is appeal not to be bound by one interpretation.

D. My General Opinion
I like this poem very much because this poem is thoughtful and interesting. And this poem is very famous poem. I thought that he had unique power of expression to attract the person who read. I thought that he expressed human psychology by various words. It will be unforgettable once if people read this poetry.

Self Introduction

Hello!
My name is Eri Koseki.
I'm nineteen.
I study in the Department of Arts and Letters at Kyoritsu Women's University.
I would like to study English and American literature.
I want to know American juvenile literature.
My hobby is to listen to music.

Thank you.