Songs are full of figurative language. Play clips of songs containing examples of metaphors, similes, idioms and personification to help illustrate the concepts for students. Look for examples from classic artists, such as Stevie Wonder's "You are the Sunshine of My Life" and more modern hits, such as Fun's "We are Young." With more advanced students, challenge them to find examples on their own and brings songs into class to share. You can also have a little fun with figurative language, having students summarize a song by taking all of the figurative language literally. For example, what if Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain" really meant to set the rain on fire?
Part of what makes a song is the rhythm of the lines. Add or take out a word and suddenly it does not fit the instrumentals or loses its flow. The same is true of poetry. While listening to a song, point out the stressed and unstressed syllables. Write out the lyrics so students can see that most lines have a similar rhythm. Change popular songs to fit different rhythms, such as rewriting a Justin Timberlake song to contain iambic pentameter.
When listening to a pop song, it might not be immediately apparent that the songs rhymes, but the majority of pop songs do. Have students take the lyrics to a song and identify the rhyme scheme. Choose songs that have unique rhyme schemes too, such as those that contain rhymes in the middle of a line or those that contain off rhymes. Many of the songs by the Beatles, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston have easily identifiable rhyme schemes. Current artists such as Pitbull, who mix pop and rap, also make good examples.
Students often have trouble analyzing poetry or think figuring out what a poem means is impossible. Using pop music provides a way to ease them into poetry analysis. Chances are most students can tell you what all of the top songs mean because they deal with themes and issues they can relate to. Once students have analyzed the elements of some of their favorite songs, analyzing a poem will be much less daunting.