poetry analysis final draft

Paige Borowski

10/4/19

Lit and Performance IB

Surviving On Your Own

“Runaway” by Greg Kurstin and Tanner Schneider made me feel sad and sympathetic for the speaker of the poem. Emotion flooded into my body when this song first spilled into my ears through my headphones. When I isolated the words and took a second to read and absorb the sentences, I could see where I was getting all of the emotion from. The speaker of the poem is constantly lonely and always on the run from others and from her feelings. She has a hard time loving someone and constantly hurts herself in trying to do so. I then realized what this poem wanted me to know. This poem tells readers that self love matters more than love from others. 

It's hard to love someone and not deal with any pain. You get hurt from trying put others before you. In the poem, there’s a line that reads, “Used to fall head over feet But everyone I loved deceived me.” That shows that she put so many people ahead of herself. She tried to make their love the most important but it did nothing but hurt her. She suffers from loving others. If she loved herself first, she would be happier. All that hurt causes her to be lonely.

Because of the hurt that comes from loving others, loneliness seems a bit more enticing and welcoming. The only person you can trust is yourself. One line reads, “You could say my shadow is the only friend of mine.” It shows that she doesn’t have many friends. The only friend she has is the one that’s a part of her. It’s the only friend she can truly love without being hurt. It’s basically loving yourself, right? She is happiest when she does and finds herself free from the struggle of loving others. The hurt in relationships comes from loving others.

When you try to put someone else first and give them all of your love without saving any for yourself, you get hurt. It affects you emotionally and digs deep into your heart. “I was lookin' for love, in the fire, in the flames. But the only way to love, is to get yourself burned.” To me, it shows that love is hurtful. You can only love another if you are hurting yourself in the process. It’s putting all your feelings aside to make someone happy. In doing so, you get beat down and lost. There’s no happiness in loving someone else more than yourself. 

This poem tells the readers that you should always put self love first rather than love from others. Love is always a challenge. It’s hard to be able to be there for someone while at the same time loving yourself. A lot of pain comes from love. You have to learn that all the love you need is from yourself. After you truly love yourself, It might be time to choose your next path. Once that gap is filled with your own love, it could be time to love others. Remember, never put their love first.