Left and Leaving Analysis

The song Left and Leaving by the Weakerthans is a song truly packed with poetic devices. It is about a person alone in a city, wishing the person he loved was with him, and had not left. The first line of this beautiful, calm song opens with personification of a city. This song, told in first person, is packed with gorgeous imagery, in nearly every line. It uses a few similes and metaphors which are original and fresh. The mood of this song is clearly in every line, along with its tone. Left and Leaving is truly an exemplary use of literal and metaphoric lyrics in one song.

Notable devices used in Left and Leaving include personification and objectification. The entire first few lines of this song are personification of a city, portraying it as a living, breathing organism which watches its citizens. “My city’s still breathing, but barely it’s true, through buildings gone missing like teeth. The sidewalks are watching me think about you…” Objectification is also used later in the song, with memories, an abstract concept, rusting and eroding. The song also portrays years as drowning and time lingering, other examples of objectification. This particular 2000 song by The Weakerthans features much objectification and personification.

As far as imagery, Left and Leaving is a great example. The song conjures images of a sad, lonely city “sparkled with broken glass”. In the second verse, the lyrics describe a person at a dress rehearsal in a sort of sad room with a “stain in this carpet,” meeting with “strangers whose faces I know”, which is also an oxymoron. The song also describes all that his lover gave him, which was “a blanket, some matches, this pain in my chest”. This evokes an image of a few threadbare items, reeking of loneliness. In one of the last few lines, the person “wait[s] in 4/4 time, count[s] yellow highway lines”, which makes the listener picture a person by a highway, waiting to the beats of music (auditory imagery), focusing on the cars passing by.
Going along with the stunning imagery is a clear mood and tone of the song. The singer obviously feels lonely, giving the song a solemn and lonesome tone. This is shown in lines such as “this pain in my chest… the best parts of lonely”. The mood is forlorn and slightly melancholy, as we can see that the subject is in a big sad city which “will never take me anywhere but here”. This certainly gives a lonely mood and tone.

In addition to the poetic devices listed, the song also gives a couple of examples of similes and metaphors. The personification of the city is a metaphor, since it compares a city to a person without using like or as. “Buildings gone missing like teeth” is a simile, comparing structures to teeth. This further adds to the metaphor of the city as a person. The song touches upon not only objectification and personification, but also portrays lovely imagery and even some devices like oxymora and metaphor. It is without a doubt an excellent song filled with poetry.