No, I'm not color blind I know the world is black and white I try to keep an open mind But I just can't sleep on this, tonight Stop this train I want to get off and go home again I can't take the speed it's moving in I know I can't But, honestly, won't someone stop this train? Don't know how else to say it I don't want to see my parents go One generation's length away From fighting life out on my own Stop this train I want to get off and go home again I can't take the speed it's moving in I know I can't But, honestly, won't someone stop this train? So scared of getting older I'm only good at being young So I play the numbers game To find a way to say that life has just begun Had a talk with my old man Said, "Help me understand" He said, "Turn sixty-eight You'll renegotiate" "Don't stop this train Don't for a minute change the place you're in And don't think I couldn't ever understand I tried my hand John, honestly, we'll never stop this train" Once in a while, when it's good It'll feel like it should When you're all still around And you're still safe and sound And you don't miss a thing 'Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark Singing, stop this train I want to get off and go home again I can't take the speed it's moving in I know, I can't 'Cause now I see I'll never stop this train.

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering. I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds, It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk. I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags. I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood. Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you.

1. Why did you pick this song/poem?

I Chose this song and poem not because they are both about death, but because they have a very deep thought about life. The poem is not that personal for me since I'm young still, and I'm not currently waiting for death. The song I chose, Stop This Train is more personal to me because it talks about how fast life is moving and he just wants it to slow down. This situation is similar to me because I want to go to college and grow up, but at the same time I'm scared to death to leave the comfortable life that I have now. What if my life in the future never matches up to my hopes and dreams? Being the age that I am, it is time to start thinking about college and what I'm going to do after college, where I want to live, if i want to stay on campus or stay at home. Where i even want to go to college. This point in life gets very stressful thinking about what colleges to apply to, having a job to save up for college, being in 11th grade, graduation is right around the corner and it's going to come faster than I expect.

2. Identification and analysis of literary devices found in the song.

"Stop this train I want to get off and go home again I can't take the speed it's moving in I know I can't But, honestly, won't someone stop this train?"

This line in the song, he is comparing the train to his life. He wants to get off the train and go home, meaning he wants life to slow down. He does not want to be older yet. He isn't ready. Life is moving too fast and he can't take it, he needs it to slow down. He is asking for someone to slow his life down.

"So scared of getting older I'm only good at being young So I play the numbers game To find a way to say that life has just begun Had a talk with my old man Said, "Help me understand" He said, "Turn sixty-eight You'll renegotiate" "Don't stop this train Don't for a minute change the place you're in And don't think I couldn't ever understand I tried my hand John, honestly, we'll never stop this train"

This part in the song is John, the singer is scared of growing up. He's only good at being young, meaning he does not think he could be an adult, he is not ready to take on the challenges the real world may bring.

3. Identification and analysis of literary devices found in the poem

"I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun"

This line could be a metaphor for death. The poets hair has turned white, and he shakes his locks at the setting sun. He dissolves into the air.

"I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles."

He is saying the grass is like a grave yard, all the bodies of dead people. If you want to find Whitman, you have to look under your boots.

4. Identification and analysis of the song’s themes

One theme of the song is life. All throughout the song, Mayer expresses how he does not want to grow old. He wants life to slow down and go at his own pace. But the train, which represents life, won't stop and there's not way to make it stop. It is going to fast for him though, he does not want to grow old and have responsibilities that the adult life brings. He wants to finish living his life being young. Enjoying every moment of it that he can.

5. Identification and analysis of the poem’s themes

Opposite of what the songs theme is, verse 52 in song of myself theme is death. Whitman enjoys nature, he knows that if we dies, he will be in the dirt under out boots, meaning he will be closer to nature. The soil he brings to people after his death will be good soil since he won't be upset about passing.