The Ballad of Love and Hate free essay sample

The Ballad of Love and Hate The Ballad of Love and Hate was written by the Avett Brothers in 2007. The lyrics are simple and the genre of music is a mix of blues, rock, bluegrass and folk. Many of the songs that the Avett Brothers write and sing have complex meanings, and are beautifully written. These young men are self-proclaimed modern day poets. I chose this song because of the complexity, and although I’ll try to analyze it, I understand that no one truly know the meaning of the song except the one who penned it. There are several different interpretations of the meaning of this song; the two below are ones that I find most interesting. The Ballad of Love and Hate begins with â€Å"Love† being gone, on vacation as it were. When she decides to return, â€Å"Hate† is hurt, apathetic and behaves recklessly. After the first verse of the song â€Å"Love† is portrayed as never doing anything wrong, being patient and kind and providing hope, care and unconditional regard for â€Å"Hate. We will write a custom essay sample on The Ballad of Love and Hate or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page † The song ends with â€Å"Hate† asking â€Å"Love† for forgiveness, and the two are reconciled. At first glance the song seems to be written about two people, their broken relationship, and eventual reconciliation. This may hold true with what the artist was trying to convey. The Avett Brothers write primarily about what they know, about relationships, and life experience. The personification of â€Å"Love† may be modeled after a woman, possibly one of these young men’s wives, who displayed unconditional love. The vacation in the first verse may refer to a time of separation, where â€Å"Hate† grew bitter, yet eventually realized his error, and was won over by the gentle ways of â€Å"Love. â€Å"Hate’s† unruly and reckless behavior may have been modeled after one of these young men’s actions. I find the verse about the cab driver very interesting. Do Seth and Scott Avett realize that their wives could possibly find other lovers, or maybe one of their wives actually did have an affair and this is an attempt to identify with how the oth er man may have felt? Maybe it is purely a hypothetical? Maybe these artists realize how truly blessed they are to have the women in their lives, and feel guilty about some of their actions. I find that this song may have been written as a personal apology. It almost has that feeling to it. Because of the vivid personification of both â€Å"Love† and â€Å"Hate,† it appears that this song is written about two people who fit their descriptions. The interpretation that I tend to hold to is that this song is written about one person. Inside all of us is the ability to act more like â€Å"Love† or more like â€Å"Hate. † I look back on my life and see that sometimes â€Å"Love† has been on vacation, and â€Å"Hate,† with his disorderly and uncontrolled behavior, is the only one home. Bitterness, unforgiveness, and selfish pride all lend itself to the person of â€Å"Hate† in this song. If we are honest, we can all identify with these emotions. Loving behavior sometimes takes a while to arrive. When those loving emotions do arrive, often we feel silly or ashamed for the disregard, or disrespect that we’ve shown others. â€Å"Love† brings hope and care and room for growth, as is true in life. And the Biblical reference to love being patient and kind, could not be more correct. Eventually â€Å"Love† gently shows â€Å"Hate† that there is a better way, and the two sides are reconciled. Undoubtedly, if we are talking about an internal conflict of human experience, the cycle will repeat itself. I don’t hold a degree in philosophy, but I find myself thinking quite deeply about this concept. Love and hate are two sides of the same coin, and one cannot exist without the other. One magnifies the other. Without hate, love would be rendered meaningless, and without love we would not understand hate. Light and darkness can illustrate this for us. If we only had light we would not need to define it, but light exists because it is different from darkness. Darkness and light define each other. So love defines hate. I don’t know if this is what the artists had in mind when writing this song, my interpretation is probably a little too deep, yet the concept is there whether Seth and Scott Avett meant it to be there or not.