Poetry Analysis

“You’ve Got To” by Unknown

The poem under analysis is by an unknown author and is an inspirational poem from The Poetry Pad online and it is called “You’ve Got To”. The poet uses mostly metaphors to get the image and emotion that is in his poem.

Regarding “You’ve Got To” it is a motivational poem. You can tell this by how each stanza includes the words keep going and some quotes showing this are: “you’ve got to move”, “And I’ll be there, be right there to help you.”, “You’ve got to fly, I’ll be right there to fly with you”, and “And I’ll be there to break your fall”. The quotes give the feeling of comfort in knowing you have someone through everything. The author established this emotion of comfort by repeating the line piece of I’ll be there like in “I’ll be there for you when you (fall, fly, climb mountains, or are walking). It seems as if the author has shared some of the struggles as the lines “I know just how it feels to spread your wings only to never fly”, “I know just how it feels to face the world alone only to realize you were wrong”. Throughout the poem it refers to, in the metaphors, of hurdles in life and the fear of going it alone and failing or not overcoming them and the feeling of not being able to do it. The poem also does a great job of after the metaphors talking about struggles and fear, and etc then it provides the comfort that they will be there throughout everything no matter what the hurdle is.

In my opinion this poem is the story of life. It talks about “to climb a mountain”, “to fly”, and “to walk”. These are all representing the types of challenges in life the difficult ones represented by climbing mountains, the normal daily ones shown by walking and to fly is representing using talents you have because you are afraid and letting go and taking the chance. In life we all feel alone and like no one els is in the same situation or struggle but knowing that we have someone makes it easier to continue on and keep going. In life there are ups and downs. The downs are the hurdles and fears from the metaphors and the ups or highs are from the comfort after each metaphor reminding you they are there. Therefore, the poem is truly a complicated piece of art with a deep meaning and sense of comfort and the story of life. It is an inspirational, relatable, and clever piece to incorporate so much under the surface. Click here to read the poem