AO
Mr. White
H. English 10
Running to Stand Still
And so she woke up
Woke up from where she was lying still
Said I got to do something about where we're going
Step on a steam train
Step out of the driving rain
Maybe run from the darkness in the night
Singing ha la la la di day (x3)
Sweet the sin
Bitter the taste in my mouth
I see seven towers
But I only see one way out
You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
You know I took the poison from the poison stream
Then I floated out of here
Singing ha la la la di day (x3)
She runs through the streets
With her eyes painted red
Under black belly of cloud in the rain
In through a doorway she brings me
White gold and pearls, stolen from the sea
She is raging - she is raging
And the storm blows up in her eyes
She will suffer the needle chill
She is running to stand still
AO
Mr. White
H. English 10
“Running to Stand Still” is Poetically Excellent
Life is by far the hardest thing anyone will accomplish. As most first-world youth do, you
have probably gone through secondary school and have seen the struggles many youth go
through. These things include extreme levels of stress, late nights and early mornings in a lastditch effort to complete schoolwork, a lot of physical and emotional maturing (this is particularly
uncomfortable…), relationship drama, and so forth, all culminating to create a ludicrously
difficult environment to live in peacefully. Following their basic education, many people struggle
to survive in life, let alone prosper, often resorting to sitting around garbage fires for warmth and
prostitution for money. With every single step of life, new struggles arise, all hammering at you,
trying to make you give up and perish as if in an infernal pit of despair. The song “Running to
Stand Still” perfectly describes the struggles of life and the implications behind them: namely,
falling back, or perishing. The lyrics of this song are an example of poetical excellence because
they utilize poetical devices, such as connotation, symbolism, and metaphor; the usage of these
devices enhances the understandability of the overall purpose; and the purpose of it is highly
important to the human condition.
“Running to Stand Still” is a song about the struggles of living and the temptation for an
easy way out of these natural struggles, through the use of drugs or other means. Literary
devices, as well as the clever choices of words used within this song, help enhance this song’s
purpose. Firstly, in the phrase “darkness of the night”, darkness refers to not just a literal lack of
light, but also a lack of good things in general, such as hope, success, and peace. “Of the night”
does not simply mean that these things are found at nighttime, though they certainly could be; it
also symbolizes the world, as a dark, deplorable place. Together, these symbolic words create the
image of a dark, hopeless world, with little chance of any sort of success. This perfectly sets up
the setting for a poem about the struggles of life, for life is turbulent because of this setting.
When people live in a world with no good, it is a major struggle to see any good or make any
positive progress on a personal or societal level. This is a great use of symbolism and
connotation, both of which are strong poetic devices.
In the second paragraph, it states “Then I floated out of here”. Previous to this, it is
talking about a man taking poison, which in this case is metaphorical to doing drugs. “Floated” is
a wonderful word choice: through its connotations, it suggests an easy, relaxed, even effortless
way to do something. That something, in this case, is “float[ing] out of here”, or escaping the
world through the use of drugs. This was, according to this person’s account, quite simple and
easy to do. This is a strong example of someone escaping the struggles of life through the easiest
manner possible, all through the use of the word “floated”. This beautiful use of symbolism and
connotation to this point vastly contribute to the poetic quality of this song.
In the final line of this poem, it states “She is running to stand still”. This utilizes multiple
denotations of the word “still” to express two different ideas, both with vastly different feelings
behind them. The first of these means that she is running her hardest, or giving her best efforts,
to stay afloat in the world and to not be blown backwards into poverty or depression; the other
AO
Mr. White
H. English 10
denotation used suggests that she was literally running to obtain drugs, simply to stagnate her
progression in life. The first of these has a generally positive connotation behind it, because
working hard to accomplish a worthy goal (such as surviving) is an admirable trait. The second
of these has a more negative connotation behind it, since worthlessly spending time and
resources is distasteful and makes you a general waste to society. Through the usage of all these
literary tools, this song becomes an example of poetic excellence.
This song, fortunately, does not utilize the poor poetic forms of sentimentality,
didacticism, or rhetoric, and because of these things this song is especially poetically excellent.
“Running to Stand Still” is about difficulties people face in their lives and how they deal with
them, ultimately showing that drug use is bad. It has an innate lack of excess emotion-raising
language. Because it is in part about the struggles of life, it surely does express a fair amount of
emotion, but it does not go so far as to confuse the purpose of the poem through sentimentality.
The phrase “[She] Said I got to do something about where we're going” is a great example of
this. It shows that the woman is finally having a realization of the stagnation of progress in her
life, which is a truly humbling and changing experience, and it shows her determination to make
her life better. Though it is an emotional experience being told, it reserves most of the emotion
for the woman, rather than attempting to force the readers to fully experience her emotions.
Neither is this song didactic, because its purpose is to describe the struggle of life and
indirectly state that drugs are not the answer. Its purpose is not to instruct or preach any point of
view; the closest it comes to this point is when it states “She is running to stand still”, which is
probably saying “she” is running to get drugs that will seemingly secure her place in the world.
But looking back to the denotations of “still”, this means both that she is trying to secure her
place in the world, or that by getting and using these drugs she is making her life stand still; or in
other words, it will intrude on her progression in life. Thus, it is indirectly stating that drugs are
bad because they interrupt the potential progress one can make in life, and is suggesting to not
use them. Because this is the closest it gets to didacticism, this poem certainly does not use
didactic language.
This song is not rhetorical either; all of the language used within it has a purpose. It is
consistently specific, as shown by the lines “You got to cry without weeping / Talk without
speaking / Scream without raising your voice”. These lines are very specific, with no highsounding language only there to sound cool. These lines are, when taken literally, extremely
contradictory and nonsensical; but upon being studied, they speak of an internal struggle where
one is holding in all their pains and fears and restricting their emotions, rather than externalizing
them and risk being shot down by society. Overall, it is clear that this song does not use the poor
poetic structures of sentimentality, didacticism, nor rhetoric, which altogether adds to the
understanding of this song and better fulfills its purpose.
As Rick Warren bluntly stated, “As life happens there are tons of ups and downs.” There
are always struggles throughout life, and with these there are temptations to take an easy way
out. Oftentimes, however, the easy way out is the most perilous route possible, and will only
AO
Mr. White
H. English 10
prevent you from progressing in life. It is best to simply navigate through life as it comes.
“Running to Stand Still” attempts to explain these struggles and temptations, and warn of the
danger behind taking the easiest course through life. This is extremely important to the universal
human condition, simply because it describes the nature of human life itself. Difficulty arises in
everybody’s lives, no matter what social status you may have, or how wealthy you are, or how
many pet bunnies you raise. And no matter where you are, there is the appealing temptation of
escape through conventional means, such as drugs or suicide. But in the end, such methods lead
to great stagnation in life and the potential progress one can make, and occasionally lead to
death. This is shown very strongly in the final line of the song: “She is running to stand still”.
After suffering the trials of life, she gave in to the temptation of drugs, just in this stanza. She is
running to get drugs; she is running high on drugs; she has come to a complete stop in her life.
She gave up on life, and her progression is standing still, completely stopped. Any one of us
could end up like this woman. This is how this song relates to the universal human condition. It
is extremely important, because it describes the difficulty of life itself, and why we should not
succumb to temptation to give up on life. It applies to everybody. Thus, the purpose of this song
is of the utmost importance to the universal human condition.
Life is a long, difficult ordeal. From childhood, to the teenage years, to adulthood, and so
forth, there is a host of new challenges that will face you. This is eloquently shown by the song
“Running to Stand Still”. This song is an example of poetic excellence because of its use of
symbolism, connotation, and metaphor; by its lack of sentimentality, didacticism, and rhetoric,
increasing our understanding of the meaning of the song; and because of the vast importance of
its purpose on a universal human level. It tells of the difficulty of life, and the temptations there
are to escape it. Life certainly is hard, but it is not hard enough that anyone should have to resort
to doing drugs. Life is truly a beautiful thing, and using drugs simply destroys that natural
beauty; instead, live life to its fullest, without the use of drugs, and it will be fluid and absolutely
gorgeous.