Point of View

"We Didn't Start the Fire" ~ Billy Joel
This song is an example of both first person narrative and stream of consciousness. Each verse is basically a list of allusions. In the chorus, the narrator uses the pronoun "we" in the lines: "We didn't start the fire/ No we didn't light it/ But we tried to fight it."

"Get Back" ~ The Beatles
This song is an example of both third person omniscient and second person narrative. In each verse, the narrator tells stories about different characters and knows their thoughts, although the narrator is not part of the stories. "Get back to where you once belonged" shows how the audience becomes the characters that are sung of in the previous verses.

"What Else Can I Say?" ~ Chicago
This song is a combination of first person narrative and second person narrative. The narrator uses the pronoun "I" to express his thoughts. At the same time, the narrator uses the pronoun "you" to refer to the audience. In the lines, "I can't follow you there/ What do you have in mind?" the narrator is still referred to as "I," but he speaks directly to the audience in his expressions.

"Hey There Delilah" ~ Plain White T's
This song is an example of epistolary narrative. It is written as though it is a letter to "Delilah." The lyrics, "What's it like in New York City?/ I'm a thousand miles away" imply that Delilah is a great distance from the man who wrote the "letter."