"Just a Dream" by Carrie Underwood

Carrie Marie Underwood was a small town girl born and raised in Checotah, Oklahoma. She spent twenty-one years of her life in Checotah before moving on to make it big, when she got her audition with American Idol in 2004. Little to her knowledge she made it through all of the seventeen sounds and came out with the win; and became 2004’s American Idol. Underwood is now one of the most admirable singer-songwriters in America for her moving and inspirational country music. She was raised as a respectable Christian which was later shown in some of her first songs like, “Jesus, Take the Wheel”, which won over three awards. Underwood released three remarkable albums including Some Hearts, Carnival Ride and Play On. She has won an outstanding sixty-one awards for all of her musical creations. Underwood is known for her encouraging and uplifting narrative country songs. A perfect example of one of her narrative work is in the song, “Just a Dream”. In this song, Underwood succeeds in creating a modern and tragic narrative through the use of comparisons, alliterations and her picture-perfect imagery.

In Underwood’s musical masterpiece “Just a Dream”, she uses comparisons like similes and metaphors to assist the listener to capture the feelings of the widowed army wife. In the chorus she repeats the metaphor, “This is just a dream”, comparing to her experience at her husband’s funeral to a dream because it is so unbelievable. This comparison make you feel the astonishment that this woman must feel of losing the man she loves. Another line that supports the character’s unimaginable experience is, “It’s like I’m looking from a distance/ Standing in the background”. This simile shows how it feels as if this is not even happening to her and how impossible it feels to her. Finally one of her last comparisons is the simile that explains all the pain that she feels in her heart, “And it felt like a bullet in her heart”. Underwood’s final comparison really touches the listener’s heart and makes you feel the pain that the army wife feels. Her talent of conveying feelings within her songs is what makes them so moving.

“Just a Dream” uses alliteration to capture the listener’s attention and lock them into the powerful feeling of the song. In the first verse Underwood places the alliteration, “Sixpence in a shoe, something borrowed, something blue”. This line obtains the listener’s hear and allows her voice to flow into the narrative. In the third verse Underwood expresses the character’s feeling when she hears the congregation sing, “all stood up and sang the saddest song/ that she ever heard”. This alliteration apprehends perfectly what the character is feeling and relegates it to the listener. Underwood’s last use of alliteration also finally catches the ear’s attention for the closing of the song, “oh, now I’ll never know”. Her outstanding use of alliteration is what captures the fan’s attention and to have the beg to listen to more.

Underwood’s phenomenal use of picture-perfect imagery is what tops off the whole experience of listening to her music. In her this song “Just a Dream”, she uses imagery all throughout the song to paint an elaborate picture on what occurred within the song. In the first verse she sets off with the picture of what the character looks like by telling us she is, “All dressed in white”. Underwood further explains the wife’s actions by telling us, “ She put her veil down/trying to hide the tears”. This imagery allows us to picture a women dressed in white tragically heart-broken. Then later in the song she permits us to see how lost the woman feels because all she has left is her husband’s army flag, “Then they handed her a folded up flag”. This line shows us a picture of the widow’s lost hope. Underwood then allows us to picture and hear the occurrences in that day by saying, “And then the guns rang one last shot”. This line outstandingly endorses the listeners to hear that final, ringing shot before her husband is laid to rest. Underwood’s use of imagery exceeds the overall picture in our heads of what occurred within the lyrics.

In “Just a Dream” Underwood’s use of comparisons and imagery paints a perfect picture of the events in the song. But, then her amazing use of alliteration captures the listener’s attention and pulls us in for more. “Just a Dream” allowed Underwood to claim her place in the music industry with her outstanding narrative lyrics and moving words. In this song, Underwood succeeds in creating a modern and tragic narrative through the use of comparisons, alliterations and her picture-perfect imagery.