Lyric Review on Gloomy Sunday
What does it feel like to be in a mood of total gloom and misery on a normal Sunday? The song lyric Gloomy Sunday, written by Laszlo Javor and translated into English by Sam M. Lewis, have described how depressing the speaker was when he learned about his lover’s death on a Sunday. From the literary devices, description used, and the history behind this song, we can see that the impact of poetic lyrics will cause great effects on the audiences.
At the end of each line in the first verse, a rhyme scheme of “AABBCC” can be found. Whereas the second verse contains “AABB” and an internal rhyme in line 4: “flowers and prayers that are sad”. However, while most of the poem was written in long vowels and pleasant sounding words, the second last verse suddenly used caesura to break up the lines, which gives the audiences a great impact. After examining the lyric as a whole, the phrases “Sunday is gloomy” and “Gloomy Sunday” are repeated over and over again in almost every verse to emphasize the topic. In the caesura, the line “Asleep in the deep of” also contains an assonance; with the long, slow sounds of this line, the audience can even picture the girl sleeping.
Similar to the usage of sound devices, the literary devices also create deeper effects on the audiences. The first verse, line 4, “Little white flowers will never awaken you” contains a personification, because flowers cannot do the action of awaking someone. Moreover, the measure word used for “sorrow” was very unique: the poet used “black coach” to indicate how much sadness the speaker has. At the same time, in verse three, line 3, the “last breath of my soul” also used personification, providing the speaker’s soul a separate system of thoughts. Moreover, the imagined picture of “angels” combined with the phrase of “[having] no thought of ever returning [the speaker’s lover]” suggests that the death of the speaker’s lover was unchangeable. Following that comes the next line where speaker was “[thinking] of joining [her]”; this further tells the listeners how depressed the speaker’s mood was. To add on, the second verse also said that “[his] heart and [him] have decided to end it all”.
The song has a significant theme that has been repeatedly showing up in the lyrics: Sunday is gloomy. In this song, the phrase “Sunday is gloomy” and “Gloomy Sunday” were repeated in almost every verse, to set a serious and depressing tone for the audiences. This repetition also emphasized how sad the speaker was. Moreover, the use of rhyme at the end of each line will make the audience remember the lyric easily, which will bring more impact to people even after listening to the song. To add on, the history of this song is also what filled it with gloom. Legend stated that this song was originally composed by a Hungarian musician whose lover committed suicide on a cloudy Sunday, leaving only a card with “gloomy Sunday” written in ink. The musician was too sad that after he wrote the song, he also killed himself with a gun. As the lyrics have suggested, seeing that “little white flowers will never awaken [his lover]”, he “thought of joining [her]”. On the other hand, he has felt relief after making this decision that he wanted the prayers to “not weep” and “let them know that [he’s] glad to go”. In the last verse, the speaker also thought very much about his dead lover, that he “hope… [his] dream never haunted [his lover]”.
Gloomy Sunday used its detailed and exact descriptions to communicate the speaker’s sadness and sorrow. As a listener, I could sense his heart-tearing pains and his vanishing hope of living from the verses and the rhythm. This song also reminds me of the hopeless people who thought of suicide, and the people who lost their beloved ones. Therefore, this song can be considered as a will of the speaker from my perspective.
Gloomy Sunday
Sunday is Gloomy,
My hours are slumberless
Dearest, the shadows I live with are numberless
Little white flowers will never awaken you
Not where the black coach of sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thought of ever returning you
Would they be angry if I thought of joining you
Gloomy Sunday
Sunday is gloomy
With shadows, I spend it all
My heart and I have decided to end it all
Soon there'll be flowers and prayers that are sad, I know
let them not weep, let them know that I'm glad to go
Death is no dream,
For in death I'm caressing you
With the last breath of my soul, I'll be blessing you
Gloomy Sunday
Dreaming
I was only dreaming
I wake and I find you
Asleep in the deep of
My heart
Dear
Darling I hope that my dream never haunted you
My heart is telling you how much I wanted you
Gloomy Sunday