"Wish You Were Here by Incubus" a poetry analysis of the song wish you were here. this is classified as a lyric poem.

Essay by cassandra1431xoHigh School, 10th gradeA+, May 2004

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Wish You Were Here

"Wish You Were Here" by Incubus is a lyric poem. The poem is basically about a person who is lying on a beach and wishing he could share the experience with someone else. The speaker most likely wants to share it with a lover that they have lost in the past, weather by death or breaking up. He (the speaker) wants to be back with that person but has to move on to be truly happy.

In this poem the rhyme scheme is inconsistent. "Maybe I should hold with care/But my hands are the air saying" (lines 21 and 22), the rhyme in those two lines would be with care and air. The rhyme functions in the poem because it adds more rhythm and it makes it flow better; also the poem is in middle diction.

In the first verse there is a lot of imagery because as you read it, it creates a scene in your mind.

"I lay my head onto the sand" (line 10) also creates the image of the person lying on the beach. The reader is able to create the picture of someone sitting on a beach watching the wave's crash and looking at the stars.

"The ocean looks like a thousand diamonds strewn across a blue blanket" (line 2) is another literary device. It is a simile because the author is comparing the ocean to a thousand diamonds scattered across a blanket. In line 11 there is a metaphor comparing the sky to a canopy with holes in it without using the words "like" or "as". "And in this moment I am happy/Happy" (lines 4 and 5) have emphasis on the word happy. Maybe when the person does the things previously described in the poem he is truly happy...