Matt H – Story Power

“Here Comes the Sun” to “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed”

On May 5, 2026

In Music, Music Poetry, Poetry, Romanticism

By Matt, Matt, Matt, and Hugh

The song “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles is written to emphasize the joy of “surviving” the long, treacherous winter and being able to experience the spring sun. The song more specifically focuses on George Harrison getting past not only the long winter but also personal struggles of his own. It is supposed to signify a new beginning, the end of difficult times, and the warmth, literally and figuratively, returning to life.

George Harrison and the Beatles are not only great because of their music but also because of their lyrical choices. Immediately in the song, the Beatles are emphasizing the winter and how they have finally got past it: “Little Darlin’ – It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter – little darlin’ – it feels like years since it’s been here.” Here, they utilize personification with the description of the winter to make it seem more intentional of its annoyance which makes the coming of the sun bring out the hopeful tone of the song. As the song proceeds, the Beatles continue to excite the fact that the sun is out: “Sun sun sun, here it comes…” The use of repetition here emphasizes their excitement of the end of winter which is supposed to have a similar effect on the listeners. With the already hopeful tone throughout the whole song, the use of repetition only enhances the passion the Beatles feel for the spring. While the language is simple, the repetition of “doo-doo-doo” highlights the happy tone and feelings this song is supposed to resemble.

The poem “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” by Emily Dickinson is meant to resemble an overwhelming and joyful “intoxication” that comes from nature rather than being actually drunk. This song is supposed to represent happiness that comes from the sun which is exactly what Emily Dickinson is trying to convey. The sun in both of these pieces of literature are symbols of happiness that are just visualized in different ways.

The Wind Song

By Matt H

On December 4, 2025

In Music, Music Poetry, Poetry

The song “The Zephyr Song” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers appears on the 2002 album titled By The Way. While the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been performing for around four decades, with many hit songs such as Californiacation and Can’t Stop, “The Zephyr Song” stands out from the rest of them for its deeper meaning and great instrumentals.

To begin the song, they want to emphasize a tone of freedom while craving intimacy both physically and emotionally:

Can I get your hand to write on Just a piece of leg to bite on What a night to fly my kite on Do you want to flash your light on?

Take a look its on display for you Coming down, no, not today

They first introduce this part as a way to ask for connection in a way to express their desire to be a part of this person’s life. When they say “take a look its on display for you,” that is them showing their feelings and how they have showed up for the other person. He continues the line with “coming down, no, not today” to suggest that he does not want to lose this feeling of freedom. The Red Hot Chili Peppers use metaphors in the first part of the song to turn their simple actions into a deeper emotional meaning. No they do not necessarily want to fly their kite, but they are symbolizing feeling uplifted or even more a sense of freedom. Imagery is also utilized heavily in the first part of the song to make the connection feel physical, intimate, and real. Most importantly not abstract. Both imagery and metaphors are most notably used to emphasize both emotional and physical freedom by making the song feel unrestrained and uplifting.

Further on in the song, the Red Hot Chili Peppers first mention the use of the word zephyr:

Fly away on zephyr I feel it more than ever And in this perfect weather We’ll find a place together

Symbolism plays a key role in the song through the use of the word “zephyr.” Zephyr refers to a gentle, warm breeze which is associated with the sense of calmness and freedom. Why would they use the word zephyr in this song? It captures the overall mood and tone of the song of feeling free and is served to feel uplifting. The purpose of this song is to represent the emotional freedom that you endure with another person in your life. It shows how you find peace, a stress-free life, through closeness or more specifically human connection.

Maybe Murder Isn’t So Bad

By Matt H

On November 24, 2025

In Beloved, Toni Morrison

In the novel by Toni Morrison Beloved, the story follows a woman, Sethe, and her daughter, Denver, who live in a “haunted” house in a town where they seem to be despised. Later on in the story, it is learned that Sethe had killed one of her kids and attempted to kill her other kids in order to help them escape the burden slavery would hold on them. While the whole town despises Sethe and her actions, I tend to believe that her decision was not as bad as people make it to be. Killing a baby, child, or anyone is almost never justifiable. In this case scenario, Sethe’s goal wasn’t to cause harm but to release it. Sethe throughout the whole story battles through struggles that slavery still has on her. She was not able to fully move on from the trauma at all and killing her child was just a way to release the burdens of enslavement. I believe Sethe gets too much hate in return for her actions from not only Denver but everyone in the town.

The Grass Isn’t Always Greener on the Other Side

By Matt H

On October 29, 2025

In Exit West, Migration

In Mohsin Hamid’s 2017 novel Exit West, Hamid writes on the brutalities of war and migration with a magical twist on the use of teleporting doors. Throughout the novel, Saeed and Nadia finds themselves traveling through many doors to seek new opportunities, supposedly better than what was before. With a solid chunk of the book taking place in the brutal town that they are from, we are left with the idea that they must leave because anything is better than what they are in. Then shortly after, they travel through one door taking them to Mykonos where they stay in a migrant camp. The conditions are brutal, with cold winters, leading to Saeed and Nadia to slowly fall apart. They leave the camp to go to London where the electricity is not available to them. To add to that, it was not a relatively safe community, with nativists looking to attack and everyone owning weapons. The point I am trying to make with this is the fact that no place they went met their expectations that wherever they end up must be better than where they were before. It’s intentional Hamid utilizes this because people today tend to avoid problems instead of learning to adapt to it. Maybe the better thing to do with some problems is just to thug it out because it will not always be better to escape the problem itself no matter how bad it is.

Religion is Fake

By Matt H

On October 16, 2025

In Albert Camus, Existentialism, Stranger

Although religion plays a role in forming communities in today’s society, The Stranger by Albert Camus articulates on the idea that religion is overlooked and used to follow society’s morals that “defines” what life is. Towards the end of the story, a priest comes into Meursault’s cell to guide him that he should finally pick up the bible and follow God’s footsteps in his final days to repent for his sins. While he was expecting Meursault to understand and listen to him, he denies and wants to spend the rest of his life the way he wants to. The priest is very upset with this decision and continues to push him but Meursault makes the point that everyone’s life ends at one point so what matter does it make (120-122). Despite the fact that this idea is harsh, he’s not so wrong. Whether you believe in a religion or not, one day you will die and it is inevitable no matter what you do. I would claim that this outburst is justifiable due to the reason that he should not have to follow societal norms.

This topic specifically is very interesting to interpret because of the impact religion has today and how much division sprouts from it. I believe this specific scene is a cloak to disguise the rest of society norms and how useless they are when it comes to the real meaning of life. The global average lifespan is 73 years and whether you do something with your life or not, everyone ends at the same point.

Meursault’s Meaningless Measures

By Matt H

On September 26, 2025

In Albert Camus, Stranger

Albert Camus’s book The Stranger, follows the life of a young adult that struggles to find purpose in his day to day life. He has this idea that there is no meaning to a lot of things in life and he just accepts a lot of things for the way they already are. Although Meaursault does not care for the way life is, how far can life turn upside down before he really decides to have a sense of meaning in his existence?

While it is nice to start with an answer to this question, it really is hard to depict one. As we start reading the story, Meaursault has little to no emotion over the death to his mom, which for most would have a substantial effect. Meaursault remarked, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know…That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday” (Camus, 3). This automatically emphasizes the strangeness of his character within the first couple sentences of the book. It is normal to have emotion towards the death of a loved one but as we get to know Meaursault more throughout the story, we learn that he just lives moment to moment with a sense of little to no meaning in his life. Which seems utterly impossible.

The story continues and we meet Raymond who asks Meaursault to write a “revenge” letter for his mistress, which would contain highly graphic material. Meaursault and the reader both understand how awful a person Raymond is which makes the idea of Meaursault agreeing to write the letter even more absurd. There’s an extent to where it is doing a favor and doing a bad thing. This is a definition of doing a bad thing but Meaursault doesn’t care. He does not care about who this is writing to or how bad the language is. This provides no meaning to his life just like the death of his mother.

Lastly, a big takeaway in part one of The Stranger was the murdering of the Arab man with the revolver. Meaursault utters, “Then I fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace” (Camus, 59). A revolver is able to hold a maximum of six bullets at all times. He claims he shot five of those six bullets at the man, even after he died. While he continued to shoot, he didn’t shoot every bullet he could which creates the idea that he wasn’t shooting to release anger or emotion but entirely to just shoot the gun because he didn’t care.

From the death of his mother to the murder of a man, Meaursault remains the same emotionless being. I predict that he will find meaning in his life shortly after the murder circles back to him but like I said earlier, it really is too hard to say how far can life turn upside down before he changes because he is still the same person he was on the first page of the book.

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Story Power

Blogging the Lit Life

Author: Matt H

“Here Comes the Sun” to “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed”

The Wind Song

Maybe Murder Isn’t So Bad

The Grass Isn’t Always Greener on the Other Side

Religion is Fake

Meursault’s Meaningless Measures

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