Swing Life Away - Rise Against

Rise Against is a punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois. They started off in 1999 and have released many hit songs since. One of these hits is the song “Swing Life Away”, released in 2004 album “Siren Song of the Counter Culture”. The song is unlike most of Rise Against other songs, because it is performed acoustic.
The lyrics of this song are optimistic and speak of happiness of life. “Swing Life Away” also consists of various poetic devices. “Let’s unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words” is a hyperbole and a symbol. Pages aren’t meant literally and stand for life. The line is basically saying that you should ignore everything that other people have planned for you and just follow your own path. Also, “unwrite” is a made up word, that doesn’t really exist. “We live on front porches and swing life away” is a hyperbole considering that no one can live on a front porch. The second part of that line is imagery. To swing live away means to live life in a relaxing manner, not worrying about small things. “We get by just fine here on minimum wage” alludes to the fact that the world revolves around money these days. Everyone wants to be rich, and thinks that that is how they’ll be happy. This line shows that you can enjoy life with the minimum. “If love is a labor I’ll slave till the end” is a metaphor. Love is being directly compared to labor. This line also shows devotion to love. “I won’t cross these streets until you hold my hand” is also considered a hyperbole. If you take “street” literally, you will realize that it is an exaggeration because it is impossible to not walk across any road until someone is besides them. However, this line is not meant to be taken literally. The streets stand for life itself. This line means that the writer doesn’t want to walk through life without their love. “I’ve got some friends, some that I hardly know” is a paradox. It is expected that everyone knows their friends. “We’ve had some times that I wouldn’t trade for the world” shows personification because time can’t be traded anyways. A second example of personification is the line “We chase these days down with talks of the places that we will go”. Even though it is “we” that actually does the chasing, you can’t chase down something inanimate, or something that doesn’t actually exist.
This song indicates devotion to life. The writer expresses that he is just living with the minimum and that it is the simple things like holding someone’s hand that make life so special. You don’t need to have great opportunities to be happy; just the people you care about.