Breathe (2 AM) by Anna Nalick
A Lyrical Analysis using
Literary Devices
2 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHEj4cRhm3E
Breathe (2 AM) lyrics
2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake,
"Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?,
I don't love him. Winter just wasn't my season"
Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize,
Hypocrites. You're all here for the very same reason
There's a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout 'cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them
again
If you'd only try turning around.
'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe
2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to
May he turned 21 on the base at Fort Bliss
"Just a day" he said down to the flask in his fist,
"Ain't been sober, since maybe October of last year."
Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while,
But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles,
Wanna hold him. Maybe I'll just sing about it.
Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button, boys,
So cradle your head in your hands,
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe
But you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand.
and breathe, just breathe
woah breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe.
1st Stanza
“2 AM and she calls me,” is setting and the time suggests that the author
and the woman are close friends, because you can’t call just anyone at 2
AM.
2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still
awake,
"Can you help me unravel my latest
mistake?
I don't love him. Winter just wasn't my
season"
“Yeah.”
We walk through the doors, so accusing
their eyes.
Like they have any right at all to criticize;
Hypocrites. You're all here for the very
same reason.
The woman asks the author to help “unravel” her mistake. This is an
example of diction. I think that the woman is talking about having the
author help her figure what to do with her problem.
“I don’t love him. Winter just wasn’t my season,” is an example of
foreshadowing. The woman is suggesting there is something wrong, and she
references a relationship, but she doesn’t come out and tell us what she
wants to do about it or what the relationship was/will be.
“So accusing their eyes,” is personification. This suggests they are in a place
where there are other people, and perhaps that they feel guilty about being
there, or they should. This suggests the place they are in is perhaps taboo or
frowned upon.
“Hypocrites, you’re all here for the very same reason,” is an example of
inner monologue. This is what the author is thinking about the other people
in the room, but she doesn’t say it out loud.
As a whole, I think this stanza is about a woman whose friend calls her in the middle of the night
because she is pregnant and she doesn’t love the baby’s father. She asks the author to help her fix
her “mistake” by taking her to an abortion clinic. When they get there, they perceive people’s
condemnation, but it might just be because they feel guilty about being there.
Chorus
'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like
cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the
table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe.
Nalick uses both metaphors and similes
throughout the chorus.
Similes:
like cars on a cable – The author uses this
simile to suggest that we can’t change our
plight. Fate?
life’s like an hourglass glued to the table –
meaning time is fixed; you can’t get it back.
Metaphors:
jump the track – talking again about fate and
“changing your stars,” so to speak.
the rewind button – Another statement about
how we can’t change/fix the past. Time goes
on.
2nd Stanza
May he turned 21 on the base at Fort Bliss
"Just a day" he said down to the flask in his fist,
"Ain't been sober, since maybe October of last year.”
Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while,
But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles;
Wanna hold him. Maybe I'll just sing about it.
The author starts out with setting, talking about
both the time (May) and the place (the base at
Fort Bliss). The setting tells us both that the
“he” she talks about is affiliated with the
military, and he just turned 21 in the spring,
which is a time of innocence, emphasizing his
young age.
The soldier is speaking to his “flask,” which is an
example of diction. Flask is an older word, and
maybe is used in juxtaposition with his age to
emphasize it.
“October of last year” is another use of setting.
He uses this time frame to indicate that he’s
been drinking heavily for more than eight
months.
I think that Nalick is making a statement about war and how it is too hard on young
men. She is also bringing to attention the substance dependence that many veterans
deal with, which ages them before their time.
Bridge
There's a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout 'cause you're just as far in as
you'll ever be out
And these mistakes you've made, you'll
just make them again
If you'd only try turning around.
“There’s a light…” is a cliché metaphor
for there being hope in every situation.
The author is suggesting that, even
though the two scenarios she’s given
are dark, there is still hope for those two
people. But she also suggests that,
unless we change our ways, we’ll just
keep getting into bad situations.
3rd Stanza
2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to.
2 AM is again used as a setting. This late
at night is perhaps mentioned to suggest
that these ideas are eating away at her.
“Threatening the life it belongs to” is
personification. Nalick is suggesting that
these ideas she’s mulling over are
dangerous to her unless she voices them.
She emphasizes that with the simile “like
I’m naked in front of a crowd,” which
suggests that she feels vulnerable voicing
all of these ideas, even though she can’t
keep quiet about it.
Final Thoughts/Reflection
Throughout the song, Nalick focuses on three
ideas:
• Mistakes/dark times
• Time as a constant
• Hope
The song focuses on the fact that we all have hard times
and unfixable situations, but there is always hope if we
learn from our mistakes.