Leia H – Story Power

“Get You” (feat. Kali Uchis) by Daniel Ceasar

On December 2, 2025

The song that I will be defending as poetry is “Get You” (feat. Kali Uchis) from Daniel Ceasar’s album Freudian.

The song acts as a love song between Daniel and a representative of his girlfriend. In the case of the song, Kai Uchis sings the female voice in place of Daniel’s girlfriend. The Song is a duet that reads off like a ballad. In the song, Daniel expresses his deep gratitude and love for his girl while he is in a tight financial situation. His girl then responds with notions that things will get better for both of them.

I believe the first poetic device many notice when listening to the song is the slow pace and the quietness of the tone. It is abundantly clear that the song is intimate before you even hear the first couple of words. I think that is one of the reasons it is such a profound love song. Though his voice is relatively quiet, Daniel sings in a fairly high-pitched voice, which I think adds to the softness of the masculinity he is trying to portray. It is a soft love that he has toward his woman, and the listener can understand that without the need for words.

Another very noticeable poetic device of the song is the usage of dialogue. The song is essentially a beautified conversation between a couple. Daniel sung, “Every time I look into your eyes I see it/ You’re all I need.” The embodiment of Daniel’s girlfriend (Kali Uchis) responded with, “And I’ll take some time/ Just to be thankful/ That I had days full of you.” I think it is a beautiful thing to share such an intimate moment with the artist, and I think it makes it that much more relatable. It is easy to feel connected to intimacy even if it may come with someone else in mind. Music and poetry together are meant to build connections and stories that are deeper than an analytical retelling can do any justice.

The last poetic device that Daniel used that I am going to mention is exaggeration. Daniel sung, “Through drought and famine, natural disasters/ My baby has been around for me/ Kingdoms have fallen, angels be calling/ None of that could ever make me leave.” The devestating nature of droughts, famine, and natural disasters adds to the loyalty Daniel is describing his girl to posses. He wants the listener to understand the gravity of the commitment his girl had to him, even through the hardest times in his life. He then discussed kingdoms and angels, which are notably otherworldly things. The usage of these exaggerated words continues to add to the deep commitment and otherworldly passion Danial had for his girlfriend.

There are many other things Daniel did to ensure his song remains poetically sound, like the layering of voices, the pauses between lines, and the inclusion of a simile toward the end, but I am going to refrain from going too far into that for fear of ruining the song for myself. Though I enjoy writing about “Get You,” I am quite positive that I don’t want to be reminded of each poetic component every time it comes around on my playlist.

I hope everyone will consider giving “Get You” (feat. Kali Uchis) by Daniel Ceasar a listen, especially if you are a poetry fanatic.

Love your hands!

By Leia H

On November 22, 2025

In Beloved

In the story Beloved by Toni Morrison, Morrison continuously shares events in the lives of the characters that may seem in some sense “positive” but were actually adding to the never-ending list of negatives.

When I was first reading about Baby Sugg’s emotion-provoking gathering, I was impressed by the sense of community and distance from the past. I had thought that Morrison was trying to convey how many of these previously enslaved people were able to “move on” with their lives once they were free. I could not have been more incorrect.

After reading the excerpt a second time, I noticed that everything Baby Suggs said the crowd needed to love about themselves were things that were previously abused or underappreciated by those who had eslaved them. It was devastating to think about the pain each individual must have been going through, and it was very telling that slavery was not something you could ever “move on” from.

On page 103, Baby Suggs states, “And o my people they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty. Love your hands! Love them.”It is clear that Morrison used Baby Sugg’s sermon as a way to illuminate more of the traumas enslaved individuals had faced, and how it continued to haunt them after they were “free”, even if it may seem like a “positive” community event.

Exit West Parallel

By Leia H

On October 22, 2025

In Exit West

The story Exit West by Mohsin Hamid explores the realities of a refugee crisis. Main characters, Saeed and Nadia, experience a world of attacks and bombings in their hometown. On one specific night, militants break into their neighbor’s home and kill the father because of his last name. He was murdered in cold blood, and the wife and child were taken. This atrocity was unfortunately fairly common in the lives a Saeed and Nadia.

While I was reading the book, I felt I was in a world of fantasy, or maybe horror. I couldn’t even imagine living through a life of so much pain that I would almost get used to it. I couldn’t imagine watching my neighbors get killed or even just dragged away because of their race, nationality, religion, or whatever else.

A few days later, I was in the car with my mom, and she turned on Bad Bunny radio. She wanted to learn all the music so she could sing during the halftime show of the Super Bowl. By the time she started mumbling the idea of lyrics, a commercial came on. It was for ICE. It sounded as though it was a fugitive report for a wide grouping of dangerous individuals. The next commercial break was the same. I was shocked by how real the whole thing was, and it made me think of Exit West. Even though America is experiencing immigration conflicts instead of a refugee crisis, I felt as though Exit West reminded me of the realities of a world that ours could become. All I can see is fear, danger, and regret in what’s to come.

A Stranger Snapshot

By Leia H

On October 21, 2025

In Albert Camus

Life is essentially what you make of it. Whether you are in the most excruciating circumstances or living a relatively comfortable life, a positive outlook is the only true way to find happiness. If you reach an acceptance of whatever life you are leading, even if it is the most mundane, you have figured out the meaning of life, and can therefore be happy. In the book The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault uses a neutral or even positive outlook on life to hurdle through the tragic obstacles thrown in his way. The author shows just how intricate Mersault’s outlook is by contrasting him with many characters or populations throughout the story.

Toward the beginning of the book, Camus portrays Meursault in a complete acceptance of his mother’s death, while others seem to be deep in grief, to illuminate the effect of outlook on life. Maman, Meursault’s mother, died extremely early in the book. Meursault attended the funeral, but didn’t seem to feel any emotion. Most described it as disturbing or monstrous, but Meusault didn’t see it that way. He had understood that his mother lived a relatively long life, and that she was already at the point of needing to be in a home. Meursault’s acceptance of death shocked the others attending the funeral, as many of Maman’s friends sat in tears. Meursault was given the ability to remain almost unbothered, or even happy, during such a tragic event because of his holistic viewpoint. It is easy to think the character put up a sort of act to let go of his emotions later, yet the author portrayed Meursault with a woman very soon after. He was laughing and flirting with this woman like nothing had happened. The actions of Meursault were put in such a harsh contrast with the “regular reaction” that the reader began to think there was something wrong with him; That he was abnormal. The only thing strikingly abnormal about him is his ability to see beyond the high-emotion events in life, only looking at the bigger picture, and where he should go from there.

Did Jessica Benjamin save the WNBA?

By Leia H

On September 24, 2025

In Mutual Recognition

Freud’s theory of denomination involves a father-son relationship, which is avoidant of women altogether. It explains how sons strive to maintain the same power-holding position that their fathers once had. Benjamin’s theory rebuts this theory in a very intricate, yet understandable way. Benjamin explains that the denomination can only happen when there is a party of doers, and a party of done-to. The done-to people in this case would be the women Freud left out of his theory. Benjamin theorized that there had been a general understanding throughout life that sons would assume the power of their fathers, and women would look for a new attachment after they outgrow the caretaking of their mothers. It was “perfect fate” that these power-seeking men would find a match in these overly compliant women. Benjamin suggests that the only way to end this cycle would be to maintain an equal status between men and women. The worst way to go about it would be to flip the narrative completely and have women in the positions of extreme power, as that would be hypocritical and a repeat of the past. To achieve this equal status, each person must be comfortable in being their own person and seeing love as an opportunity to enjoy another complete person. It must not be an act of submission and denomination, but an act of partnership and mutual respect. That is truly the main point of Benjamin’s argument about subjectivity and power.

Extention:

Gender inequity has been a long-standing issue in America for centuries. In the last few decades, significant voids in pay gaps have been filled between genders, yet sports seem to be falling behind.

The average female professional basketball player makes about $150,000, whereas the males make over $10,000,000. Currently, the WNBA is still a charity to the NBA, as it loses more money than it can gain. It is easy to blame the WNBA for its lack of interest, yet this issue reaches beyond it.

The primary income of professional sports stems from the viewers who attend the games and watch the programs. Like anything, widespread coverage is needed to promote interest in sports. Unfortunately, less than 15% of sports covered on television are women’s sports. It’s beyond difficult to correct the wrongs of gender inequality when the media downplays the importance of women’s sports.

In Jessica Benjaim’s theory of mutual recognition, she suggests that men and women must be seen as equals in a relationship to achieve the highest level of health. Additionally, she suggests that it is important for each subject to be a whole, individual self versus having dependency on a partner.

The topic of gender equality in sports can follow a very similar path to Benjamin’s theory. The switch to equality is not about flipping the narrative to a female-dominated field, but instead gaining a mutual playing field that allows men’s and women’s sports to function individually, as the WNBA is drowning as a current charity of the NBA.

Can Jessica Benjamin create gender equality in sports?

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Story Power

Blogging the Lit Life

Author: Leia H

“Get You” (feat. Kali Uchis) by Daniel Ceasar

Love your hands!

Exit West Parallel

A Stranger Snapshot

Did Jessica Benjamin save the WNBA?

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