Radioactive

Imagine Dragons - Radioactive

I'm waking up to ash and dust
I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust
I'm breathing in the chemicals

I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus
This is it, the apocalypse.

I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my systems blow
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
I'm radioactive, radioactive
I'm radioactive, radioactive

I raise my flags, and don my clothes
It's a revolution, I suppose
We'll paint it red to fit right in

I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus
This is it, the apocalypse

I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my systems blow
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
I'm radioactive, radioactive
I'm radioactive, radioactive

All systems go, the sun hasn't died
Deep in my bones, straight from inside

I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my systems blow
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
I'm radioactive, radioactive
I'm radioactive, radioactive

Lyrics from: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/imaginedragons/radioactive.html
Personally, this is one of my all time favourite songs. It makes me feel vibrant and resilient when I'm somber. It gives me vitality and fortitude when I need it most. To me, the persona of this song is writing about the conflict of finding oneself after depression, and when they do, they feel like they finally have awakened themselves up inside, and have new found strength and power that they didn't know they had previously. When the persona says "I'm waking up, to ash and dust" it means they are waking up from a battle. To me, this battle is internal conflict between the persona and him/herself. When he/she wakes, he/she finds him/herself having a different demeanour about the conflict. He/she finds him/herself rejuvenated and with a different point of view, he/she feels more powerful now after taking a fall, and feels like he/she now can win the battle because of his/her new found self.

The stanza organization is tercet, couplet, sexain, tercet, couplet, sexain, then couplet and lastly sexain. The first line of the lyrics has eight syllables, then nine, then eight once again. The first couplet has the syllable count sixteen then eight. The second tercet has the amount of syllables in each line as the first tercet does, and all the sexains have the syllable count, ten, eight, ten, ten, eleven, eleven. In the tercets, the first and second lines rhyme and the third line does not. The sexains are all refrained. They are all the same, and get repeated frequently throughout these lyrics. All the couplets are also refrained excluding the last one. This poem also has enjambled poetic syntax. It has punctuation anywhere in a line, except for at the end of a line, therefore, it is not end stop.

In this poem, the persona is an enlightened person who finally figured out who he/she is, and now, has it within themselves to finally win an internal conflict of depression and anxiety in themselves. The addressee is the persona him/herself, because they do not have an intended audience, and have obviously made this poem for themselves as encouragement or as a way to keep themselves winning the battle over their own depression and anxiety. There is a lot of symbolism in this poem which backs this up. "I'm waking up to ash and dust/I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust" shows that the persona just took a fall, and let him/herself fall back into depression, but then they finally wake up, and start "sweating their rust" which means they are figuratively shaking off their fall and trying over again. "I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus/This is it, the apocalypse" shows that the persona is "breaking in" and figuring out their new selves, and then they're "checking out on the prison bus" which is leaving behind the jail that is depression and anxiety.  This can also be considered a metaphor, as the prison being depression, and the bus an escape to freedom and self empowerment. "This is it, the apocalypse" symbolizes that the persona is ending their battle with depression, and finally winning against it, and soon enough, depression will not exist in the persona at all, hence the reference to an apocalypse.

Overall, this song is an empowering anthem for people who are fighting against depression and anxiety, or any battle or conflict for that matter. It shows that a battle might be hard and difficult to win, but if you keep trying, you will find yourself through the conflict, then succeed in winning and then eventually finding out who you are, and how strong you can be.