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Analysis Of The Poem Sixteen By Thomas Rhett

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Think back to when you were eight years old. You might have had older siblings, or older friends that were always allowed to do things you were not. Your mom would always say “when you’re ten you can”. Think back to when you were fourteen, you would ask your mom to go out somewhere with your friends without any parental supervision, your mom would laugh and say “when you’re sixteen you can”. Growing up, all anyone wants to be is older. When you are a little kid you want to be a teenager, when you are a teenager you want to be in your twenties. That only slightly changes when you get older. Then people want to go back an relive the “good ol’ days” and the “best time of their lives”. No one ever appreciates and enjoys where they are in that specific moment. All people want to do is press rewind or press fast forward.There is never any acceptance of the present. The song Sixteen by Thomas Rhett argues that the listener should accept where they are in life and enjoying what they're doing in that moment. One way in which Rhett helps express this idea of acceptance is through the use of repetition. In his lyrics Rhett is able to incorporate multiple key stages of growing up and connect each piece to his audience members who are part of each range. This allows for them each to identify and see themselves within the song. For instance, Rhett starts each new verse in the beginning of the song with the line “What I wouldn’t give to be (age), wild and free”. This continuous repetition throughout the song exhibits how even though Rhett has reached that age he was once dreaming of, he still wishes to be older. The repetition throughout the song ends with a change of lyric. Rhett instead sings about his current age saying “Now I'm twenty five and I'm drinking wine with my wife at home… And we sit around and we laugh about how we used to be when all we cared about was turning sixteen”. This switch shows the acceptance of where he is in life, and how the need to wish for the future to come sooner has ended, for he is currently enjoying the moment in time he is experiencing. Another key element of Rhett’s lyrics that assist in the continuation of the concept of acceptance, is the understanding of the world of the poet (or

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