1. To be--or not to be: that is the question

(from Shakespeare’s Hamlet)

The above line may be the most famous line from literature in the English language; but, what gives it its power? I think it is because of the contrast between the how simple the line is vs. how enormous the question is. One can look at the actual question being asked as the question to end all questions because one can not ask or answer any other question until they answer this one. It could be a question asked using very complex language. However, that is not what Shakespeare does. In the quote there are 10 words and the first 9 of them all have 1 syllable. The line seems to me like it could be broken up into 3 parts. The first part is just the first to word “To Be” and the second part is the opposite “or not to be.” Because all the words in parts one and two are one syllable and similarly structured words it seems to me that they are all at the same tempo and loudness. Then we get the second pause and come to the word “that.” This word is important on number of levels. First it breaks up the pattern of only words with 2 or 3 letters. Also the “at” sound at the end of the word is the hardest sound we have heard so far. Those 2 facts along with the word being near the middle make it seem like to like a rising peak in the line that quickly declines to the at the end. The last part of the line “is the question” is where we get our first polysyllabic word and seems like a quick denouement where the temp increases.

2. a penny saved is a penny earned.

The moral of this quote is that saving is the equivalent of earning. The equivalence of the saving and earning is reinforced by the parallelism in the line. If you look at the word “is” as a central fulcrum, then each side of the line is sonically the same as the other side thus equating saving and earning. Both sides start off with the two words “a penny.” And they end with the 2 syllable long words that end with “ed” which contributes to the parallelism.

3. Get Busy Living, or Get Busy dying (from the movie Shawshank Redemption. Line spoken by the great Morgan Freeman)

I choose this proverb as a companion to the last one to illustrate their similar structure even though one is about 14 years old and the other proverb is a few hundred years old. They both have similar parallelism in their structure. They differ in some ways though in meaning and structure. “A penny saved is a penny earned” is a more passive phrase while Get busy living or get busy dying is in essence a command. Thus, it makes sense that both parts of the line start with the two words “Get busy” which both feature hard consonant sounds at the start of the line.

4. Think left and think right, think low and think high, on the thinks you can think up if only you try. (From Dr. Suess’s classic book Oh The Things You Can Think)

The key word in this quote is obviously think. It serves a number of purposes. One it provides an alliteration effect to the line but even more importantly the constant use of the word acts as a kind of subliminal message urging the listener or reader to think. This is why I he uses the made up word “thinks” instead of “things” in the last part of the line. It also forces the listener to pay attention because you are expecting to hear the work things. This type of unexpected sound is something that is used to draw attention to something in music. In addition, the line is memorable because of the rhymes in it.

5. I should’ve taken a Left Turn at Albuquerque (Bugs Bunny)

This is the line Bugs Bunny always said when he was lost.  The key is the last word. Albuquerque is an odd word to say. It has many syllables and vowels. Since a person is most likely feeling confused when they are lost, it makes sense to use the name of a city that is confusing and difficult to say in order to reinforce that confusion. If Bugs said “ I should have taken a left turn at Boston or I should have taken that left turn at New York, the line would not have the same affect because those city names are easy to say.

6. Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For you, ask what you can do for your country. (John F Kennedy)

The start of this “the first part of this line “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You” seams to have a slight rise to it during the entire line while the second half seems has a slight decline. You is the high point which symbolically show that the most important aspect of the meaning is that it is “You” who can help and change the country.

7. Where there’s a will there’s a way

There is a lot of repetition in this proverb. There is the Th sounds and the Wh at the start of 3 words and all 3 of those words rhyme. They are also followed by the letter a followed by a one syllable word that start with W. The repetition makes the phrase more memorable.

8. It’s not over, till it’s over (baseball great Yogi Berra)

This is one of the many proverbs and sayings that instead of using actual opposite words, adds another word like “not” to make one side of the parallelism the opposite of the other.

9. Say Something Nice, or Say Nothing At All.

Here is another line that has parallelism and it also has alliteration to it with the 3 S sounds and the 2 N sounds. The parallelism and alliteration make the line more memorable.

10.  I am not a businessman!  I am a business…man! Let me handle my business…damn!

(Sean Carter aka Rapper Jay Z from the Remix to the song Diamonds Are Forever)

In this line rapper Jay Z shows how the musical way the a line is said can change its meaning. The subtext of the first part of the line is that Jay Z is not merely a business man, but a business into of himself. This is conveyed by the pause in between the words business and man in the second part of my line. Jay Z even further plays with the word sounds by rhyming man with damn at the end of the line in order to add force to it because the word “damn” starts with the hard d sound and even ends with the kinda hard mn sound.

11. The Whole World It Loves You, If You Are A Chic Chameleon (written by Conor Oberst lead singer of the band Bright Eyes from the song Classic Cars)

The meaning of this line is most conveyed by the last 2 words. The message of the song is that people who can adapt their personality (even in a phony way) to any situation are universally love. That ability to adapt is reinforced by how the Ch in Chic is a completely different sound then the Ch in Chameleon. Hence, the Ch sounds is adaptable to the needs of what’s around it.

12. D’oh  (Homer Simpson) 

Simple, but yet conveying so much. Homer Simpson’s iconic phrase begins with a hard D sound and a ends with an equally loud Oh sound.