Text Analysis of Jim Morrison’s Poetry
Jim Morrison is best known for being the lead singer of the psychedelic rock band, The Doors. What is less commonly known is that in addition to songwriting, he wrote poetry. For my text analysis I used a selection of poems from https://www.poeticous.com/jim-morrison. I have a book of his poetry which is what inspired me to use his poetry for this assignment.
Jim being the singer of a psychedelic rock band comes with some stereotypes. One that would make sense to assume in relation to the poetry is that his poetry is non-sensical and overly philosophical. And while that could be considered true the world cloud allows for some particular aspects of his poetry to be noted.
One aspect of his poetry that is notable in the word cloud is the presence of verbs, like ‘can’, ‘will’, ‘like’, and ‘want’. These words show that his poetry involved action. Almost every use of the word can is in his poem Power.
‘I can make the earth stop in
its tracks. I made the
blue cars go away.
I can make myself invisible or small.
I can become gigantic & reach the
farthest things. I can change
the course of nature.
I can place myself anywhere in
space or time.
I can summon the dead.
I can perceive events on other worlds,
in my deepest inner mind,
& in the minds of others.
I can
I am”
The idea of this much action is definitely inspirational. Writing a poem called Power that’s first stanza repeats ‘I can …’ over and over again shows that Jim Morrison was inspired and had self-confidence.
The largest word in the cloud is l’america which is from the poem The Opening of the Trunk. The word is also repeated in a song of the same title L’America from their album L.A. Woman. After some research, I found that this means Latin America. The song this word appears in is about going to Mexico to buy marijuana, which is not unusual for the time. It is appropriate that the entire word cloud is built around this word as drug use was the main source of introspection for many during the time these poems were written, including Morrison himself.
One last thing to note about the word cloud is how large it is. Some of the words can’t even be read. I think it is important to note the variety in word choice, and that although some words were repeated often, many of the poems were unique and not overly repetitive.
