Grace Earnest
White
ENGL 1310
16 October 2021
A Poem to “Tennessee Whiskey”
You were always my go to song on the drives around town
The twangs from the Fender Chris played pulled me in like they were telling me a secret
I could listen to you on repeat for days without ever getting tired of your voice
But then I met him, and my love for you grew like the oak in his front yard
You were our love anthem that we played every time we were together
We had your lyrics ingrained in our heads like when I was a child memorizing bible passages
You made us as smooth as Tennessee Whiskey
You made us as sweet as strawberry wine
You made us as warm as a glass of brandy
Now with every strum of the guitar my heart cracks a little bit
With every beat of the drums, it drives a knife further into my heart
You were a sign of how beautiful we were
Reminding me of being held in his Carhart’s
Now I change the station before I can even hear your beautiful twangs I once loved so much
What conflicting emotions were at the heart of this poem?
– I am conflicted because I used to love this song but now it reminds me of someone I wish
I could forget.
How did you use juxtaposition to generate tension?
– In the lines “But then I met him, and my love for you grew like the oak in his front yard”
and “We had your lyrics ingrained in our heads like when I was a child memorizing bible
passages” its created good tension because I compared our love for the song to a strong
oak and then the innocence of memorizing the lyrics like when I was a kid in school
reading bible passages.
