Essay Number 3

Love and a Cowboy:

An Essay about the Song “Desperado”, and specifically about the Themes Found in the Song

Gaelen Frink

9th Grade English

October 13, 2011

Will you ever find love if you never open yourself up to find it? Love and who to love occurs as a theme throughout the song, “Desperado”, by the Eagles. While love is one meaning, another obscured (fast) interpretation shows up of a cowboy who won’t open himself up to love. This essay will show you how love is a meaning in “Desperado” just as a cowboy is another meaning in the song.

“Desperado” tells us about someone who is being told to open his mind to love or how to love a person. One verse of the song is “Desperado, why don't you come to your senses? You been out [riding] fences for so long now, Oh, you're a hard one, I know that you got your reasons, [these] things that are [pleasing] you, Can hurt you somehow.” This verse has many meanings, but one meaning appears that this person we learn about isolates himself and closes himself up, instead of discovering (fast) love. The last point to this stanza seems to be this person likes what he does and they love the way they live their life. Another verse with a same general meaning is, “Don' you draw the queen of diamonds, boy, She'll beat you if she's able, [you] know the queen of hearts is always your best bet.” This verse means that this person always tries for that hard person to get and this hard person acts flashy and even though this person appears pretty you will never get her and you should try for someone else. (Polysyndeton)  This is where the queen of hearts comes in, the queen of hearts appears to be the person that loves, and seems kind and the queen of hearts wants to love whoever this song is about.  (Anaphora)  The final verse of the song, is, “Desperado, why don't you come to your senses? Come down from your fences, open the gate, [it] may be [raining], but there's a rainbow above you, [you] better let somebody love you, before it's too late.” This means take the risk and open up to a special person. No matter what happens you will have that rainbow above you and you should love someone before time runs out. The song, “Desperado”, tells a story of how to live your life and how to open yourself up to love.

Love can be one meaning in the song, “Desperado”, but another meaning could be a cowboy out on a ranch in the upper reaches by the fences. In the song, “Desperado”, the first verse sung is, “Desperado, why don't you come to your senses? You been out [riding] fences for so long now, Oh, you're a hard one, I know that you got your reasons, [these] things that are [pleasing] you, Can hurt you somehow.” This cowboy wants to live alone and away and apart. (Polysyndeton) This is the way the cowboy wants to live alone, and this is how the cowboy wants to live his life and this is how the cowboy will live his orher life. (Anaphora) However, Don Henley and Glenn Frey, who wrote this song think because the cowboy doesn’t engage (fast) in society he will miss some opportunities the cowboy would  otherwise had have in life. Another verse is “Don' you draw the queen of diamonds, boy, She'll beat you if she's able, [you] know the queen of heats is always your best bet.” This verse could have many meanings, but if the cowboy gambles and he gets the queen of diamonds, he might lose. However if he draws the queen of hearts he might win, and this could be because this card would allow him to win, or metaphorically because the card seems loving.  The last verse sung in the song,“Desperado”, is “Desperado, why don't you come to your senses? Come down from your fences, open the gate, [it] may be [raining], but there's a rainbow above you, [you] better let somebody love you, before it's too late.” This stanza means this cowboy should come down from his far fences and find someone to fall in love with no mater what happens. If he falls flat on his face he’ll have the rainbow above him to make him smile. The song, “Desperado”, has a few meanings, one of love while here the meaning is of a cowboy who wants to live alone.

Will you open yourself up to love, especially if you’ve been hurt? In the first paragraph whoever this is about should open up and not be afraid to get hurt. Also, the cowboy is “a hard one”, but he still should open himself up to love “before it’s too late.” In this essay I have shown you the two themes in the song, “Desperado”, one of a cowboy, and the other of love.

Self Assessment

1. One Writing issue I am still working on is not using the verb to be. This verb does not contain much action therefore the verb is weak.
2. A strong point in this piece of writing that I see is that I feel that I did a goodjob of trying to replace is with other verbs,
3. A weak point in this essay is my commas, with comma splices and places where I need commas.
4. A grade I would give myself would be a B.