Homework Question on “The Faucets are Dripping” Song Analysis
“The Faucets are Dripping” Chorus:
The faucets are dripping in old New York City,
The faucets are dripping and oh, what a pity,
The reservoir’s drying because it’s supplying
The faucets that drip in New York.
You can’t ask the landlord to put in a washer,
He’d rather you move than to put in a washer,
The faucets are dripping, they sound in my ears,
The tap in the bathroom’s been running for years.
(Chorus)
There’s a wild streak of green in the sink in the kitchen,
It comes from the rill trickling out of the plumbing,
The streams from the mountains, the pools from the lea,
All run from my faucet and down to the sea.
(Chorus)
You can’t ask the landlord to put in a washer,
You can’t ask the landlord to mend the old stairs,
He takes in the rents and he lives in Miami,
Where faucets don’t drip and there’s sun everywheres.
(Chorus)
The faucets are dripping, the landlord’s content.
With every new tenant he raises the rent,
The buildings can crumble, the tenants can cry,
There’s a shortage of housing, you’ll live there or die.
(Chorus)
Is there a specific person singing? What is s/he trying to say?
Analyze use of poetic devices:
- metaphor (comparing two objects that are not alike using “is”)
- simile (comparing two things using “like” or “as”)
- alliteration (words that start with same letter and sound)
- hyperbole ( excessive exaggeration)
- personification (giving human qualities to inanimate objects).
Citation in APA format
Homework Answer on “The Faucets are Dripping” Song Analysis
Persona
The person singing is a disgruntled tenant and is talking about greedy landlords who do not mind the welfare of tenants. Such landlords do not repair leaking taps or worn out staircases, but they collect the rent and live luxurious lives in different cities. The songwriter also sees the landlords’ negligence in repairing the taps as the reason reservoirs have dried.
Metaphor
The singer uses faucets as a metaphor when he says, ‘’the faucets are dripping’’ to mean that water is leaking from the taps. Similarly, he uses Miami to refer to a place where the rich live and that is why the landlord collects rent and lives there, which might not necessarily be the case.
Alliteration
Alliteration is applied in two lines: stanza three line one the narrator says, ‘there’s a wild streak of green in the sink in the kitchen’, and in stanza six line one, he says ‘‘They’re building some buildings and fine city centers.’’