Imagine: John Lennon Essay

Considered by some as one of the greatest poesys of all time, Imagine was performed by tin Lennon in his 1971 album Imagine. It was thought that the lyrics of the song reflected solely Lennons banks for a utopian homo. However, the songs refrain can be assemble in several of Yoko Onnos poems written in the early1960s, before she met Lennon, and in her 1965 deem Grapefruit. It was coined by Yoko Ono, in reaction to her childhood in lacquer during World War II. (Imagine John Lennon, 2006) The song contains a tough political message that is sugarcoated in a beautiful melody.In the book Lennon in America, written by Geoffrey Giuliano, Lennon commented the song was an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, precisely because its sugar-coated, its accepted. (Imagine John Lennon, 2006) Lennon heard that the softer approach would bring the song to a wider audience, who hopefully would listen to his message. Lennon therefore used soft melody and short lyrics in order to convey a much deeper meaning to much masses. Lennon used empathy in his words, in his call to the community to imagine. He knows a gentleman without countries or religions does not exist, but Lennon is asking the attender to mint a moment and imagine what it would be similar if the words in the song would ever come rightful(a), to imagine living in a utopian world and experience the peace that everyone has been longing for. Also, the lyrics imply that Lennon recognizes the hurt of other people less privileged than he is, so he empathizes with these people and imagines be the same as them, being in a brotherhood of man. And through the song, he is also asking the listener to picture and feel the things that he sees and feels, and to want a founder world like he does, to end all suffering and division between peoples. much(prenominal) call to imagine also involves the sympathetic identification with the singer and the embodied us who Lennon re fers to when he sings, You may say Im a dreamer, hardly Im not the only one, I hope someday youll join us. He recognizes that he is not the only dreamer, that he is not the only one dreaming of a holy place. But he also wants the listener to join him and the other dreamers, and be explode of the collective us and imagine.Lennon knows that people long for peace, but these hopes for a come apart and ideal future have been long abandoned by more people whose lives have been tainted with negativity. But he calls out to these people and asks them to imagine and remember what it is like to hope again, no matter how unacceptable it is for the world to live as one. In identifying with Lennon and the other dreamers, their dreams become the listeners give birth. That a listener realizes that their dreams atomic number 18 also his own, implies the existence of a social order the evils of which, if removed, would make the dream of everyone a reality.The feeling of being a part of the d ream and making that dream come true reaffirms the sense of shared responsibility and the recognition that such misery in the world ought not to be. The message of the song is pure and simple, but the ideas it imparts are radical in more ways than one. It implies that religion has been nothing but destructive to human societies. It divides people into groups, feeds them with supernatural explanations and otherworldly notions of the world, gives them something to believe in and something which they fear, in order to control them and pit them against other people of other religion, all in the name of God.It also recognizes how countries have been shared and that many have died because of wars waged for these countries. The song also implies that want and need for the hookup of material possessions is a cause of suffering in the world. It causes greed and hunger, a complete imbalance between those who have and those who do not. Lennon is imagining a world where people are sharing an d living together, no man better then the other, a total state of equality. It is only when all people are equal, no rich or poor, where people will realize that there is no cause for division among them.When all is united, a perfect place becomes possible because one acts not for ones own good but for the good of everybody. Many people criticize the song as a naive dream of a man further removed from reality. But the reason critics dislike Imagine also happens to be exactly why the song, and all such art, is necessary.It envisions, and in doing so creates, a world that we cant in real life. (John Lennon and Neil materialisation, n. d. ) Such grand statements of longing for world peace seems almost insincere to other people.But Lennon himself once said, We are willing to become the worlds clowns if it helps spread the word for peace. (John Lennon and Neil Young, n. d. ) Truly, this song is admirable simply for its capability to influence its listeners enough to pause and think some an ideal world to imagine, even for a second.WOKS CITED Imagine John Lennon. (2006, October 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 31, 2006, from http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Imagine_John_Lennon John Lennon and Neil Young. n. d. Retrieved October 31, 2006, http//www. thrasherswheat. org/jammin/lennon. htm.