Hamilton Lyric Analysis

Dear Theodosia
Adam Winer
20 October, 2016

1. Dear Theodosia, 2. what to say to you?

d. You have my eyes
You have your mothers name

When you came into the world, 3. you cried and it broke my heart

Im dedicating every day to you

Domestic life was never quite my style
When you smile, you knock me out, 4. I fall apart
And I thought I was so smart

5. You will come of age with our young nation

Well bleed and fight for you, well make it right for you
If we lay a strong enough foundation
Well pass it on to you, well give the world to you
And youll blow us all away
Someday, someday
Yeah, youll blow us all away
Someday, someday

1. Addressing like a letter, rhetorical device of mimesis almost

2. Rhetorical question
3. Pathos- emotional imagery
4. Hyperbole to highlight effect of pride in his child
5. Analogy to the nation, both young and new with a lot of potential
6. Epanodos-repetition of the word you, also leads to
conduplicatio-repetition of the key word, insuring the fact that
this song is about you, Theodosia as well as the nation due to
the analogy and metaphor of the country being a young child

Tropes:
a. Analogy of the children in the song to the nation-young and
full of potential, Burr and Hamilton are proud
b. Parable, extended metaphor for the country growing up
c. Style-is causal and meaningful- somewhat simple but quite
effective
d. Synecdoche- in the beginning, instead of Burr saying you are
our child, he says, you have my eyes, you have your
mothers name-refers to the parts that can imply the whole
meaning
e. Innuendo of blow us all away- two takeaways could be you will
impress us when we are older or deceased, or you will outdo
us, depending on the colloquial definition