all right so we're going to be doing a rhetorical analysis of Ed Sheeran's hit song Thinking Out Loud this is a great song it's a really nice Modern Love song that's actually a love song Quite directly and not just some indirect Declaration of Love through jealousy or anything like that the title alone sets us up we haven't even started the song yet and we know it's called thinking out loud so what does that do for us uh well it does a lot in terms of of ethos because it's essentially letting us know that the lyrics to this song and really the song itself is more than just a song right it's it's not a song it's uh not a carefully crafted message it's not an Anthem uh it's not so many of those other things that songs usually are instead uh the idea here is these are the speaker thoughts right ethos kicks it up a notch because this speaks to the legitimacy of the words and the language it o starts to suggest something about who the audience might be uh if you're thinking out loud who is your audience most likely going to be well sometimes it's yourself if you're trying to work something out maybe in your car while you're driving or you're in your room or you're rehearsing your ideas uh or maybe you're going to make a phone call or you're going to have a conversation and so you think out loud or sometimes you think out loud in front of someone you trust because you don't need to filter your thoughts in front of them uh I certainly wouldn't think out loud in front of my my enemies um now that I think of it I probably wouldn't think out loud in front of most members of my family and probably only a few of my friends um but but here I am thinking out loud right just now just a moment ago um and I'm thinking out loud in front of a microphone for a video that's being posted to YouTube so uh maybe the audience is still a little bit ambiguous but there's certainly a level of openness of legitimacy uh and of trust right so you can probably assume that I'm being honest about the things I'm saying there as I'm thinking out loud and so we can assume that about Ed Sheeran okay let's see what sharan's got to say when your legs work like they used to before and I can't sweep you off of your feet shearan is addressing his audience a you that is presumably his love interest someone that he is in the habit of sweeping off of their feet and it's already so powerful because he's voicing a very deep and introspective insecurity is wondering about their future so again more insight into their relationship in particular his feelings about this person it's someone that he is intending to be with for many many years into old age and he's worried and that's a very human thing to be worried and whether or not it's deliberate it's a powerful rhetorical device when a speaker shows his or her insecurities about something uh when he or she voices a worry or a fear or an anxiety it can have incredibly powerful effects in this case because it's about love it's endearing we already trust Sheeran in a very powerful way we trust that he is in love with this person that he isn't doing anything weird anything he shouldn't be that he's wholly invested will your mouth still remember the taste of my love will your eyes still smile from your cheeks all right so we've got two rhetorical questions and they're saddled back to back back he's focused on her features and he uses a lot of sensory language here we could spend all day really talking about these two lines uh he asks if her mouth will remember the taste of his love and so you know we must wonder do mouths remember um is that something that mouths do in this case apparently so what does love taste like is it uh like Katie Perry's Cherry chapstick is it like Keith Urban's cool mint kiss is it like bacon cheeseburgers um if you don't know what synesthesia is yet you're definitely going to be Googling it by the end of this video synesthesia believe it's spelled s y n s t h s i a that sounds about right synesthesia is really interesting uh just because it's a crazy phenomenon but it also plays a very powerful role in great writing so synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon that essentially crosses the wires between multiple senses so if you suffer from from synesthesia and this is a real thing uh you might taste the color red or you might hear the flavor of chocolate milk and so on so there's a little neurology that's supporting these L struck claims of Sheeran and then he asks will your eyes still smile from your cheeks again the notion of eyes smiling we can call that personification we can dig into the sensory details but the sake of but for the sake of this rhetorical analysis we'll focus on what it means for his message so it's coming off as genuine it's heartfelt and it's it's well said it's carefully crafted without really being um premeditated the speaker Sheeran in love the audience the person he loves and the message I think we can probably pin it down but the next line makes it very explicit very clear darling will be Ling you is 17 and there it is the message is that he loves her and he will continue to love her into old age he says 70 but he probably doesn't mean uh 70 literally and and 70 in a day he will stop loving her he probably means a lot more than that he calls her darling to enhance the intimacy of their relationship with this language and it works so far it's a very solid I love you argument baby heart could still 23 so what does it mean that his heart could fall hard it's a funky way to say it but at this point mouths are tasting love and eyes are smiling from cheeks and here hearts are falling they're falling in love and and for the record Ed Sheeran was indeed 23 years old when the song was released he turned 24 last week happy birthday but that's awesome um but it's likely that he is our speaker here right the singer is the speaker that's really interesting that's really [Music] cool people Fool in Love in mysterious ways maybe just the touch of a hand so here there's a reference to thinking which reinforces the authenticity of these ideas the ethos associated with seeing someone's thoughts directly and unfiltered as if we're peering into his brain and again there's more sensory language the role that the touch of a hand plays in the creation of love and these sensory images they're great for the love argument uh love is not a logical thing not usually and uh love is really by definition all about Pathos and these sensory details here they sink their teeth into pathos completely every single [Music] time be a full in love with you every single day and I I just want to tell you here the speaker reflects on himself he says basically that as far as he's concerned he wants to experience the feeling of falling in love with this person his his audience on a daily basis to tell her about it and to celebrate it continuously honey take into arms all right so there's a call to action happening here he calls her honey so there's more pathos more relationship building because in Truth for all we know he's known her for 10 minutes right this could be Romeo and Juliet's style maybe he's known her for 10 years we don't really know um but it almost doesn't matter and the call to action is take me into your loving arms so speaker Sheeran audience lover message I love you purpose H right um we don't really know what he's trying to accomplish yet but let's see let's see where this goes kiss me the of stars okay so maybe the purpose is to number one uh make that love known uh number two glorify it celebrate that love in some way and number three to make it physical the call to action has already escalated now sheron's after a kiss your head on my heart I'm thinking out L okay he Echoes the title here he's Thinking Out Loud he's being heartfelt uh he's not just trying to sweep her off of her feet uh because that's one of his Hobbies but rather because he is completely enamored it's legit the transparency breeds credibility and the pathos Powers the love no logos necessary here that's what love songs are all about are now this is the recurring hook in the song Maybe We Found Love right where we are the purpose seems to be reinforcing the specialness of their relationship uh maybe they did get that lucky maybe it really is something so special maybe it truly is worth celebrating again it bolsters the Pathos and it reinforces the depth of the love in the message that Sheran is trying to send my [Music] face and the crowds don't remember my name when my don't play the strings same way okay I'm going to go ahead and say that this is the most powerful moment in the song I love this uh the speaker reflects but instead of positioning the audience in the future he is being introspective here he's thinking about himself not as the 20-year-old rock star that he is but as an old man his hair has fallen out his memory is fading perhaps he has a hard time remembering the lyrics to his songs The Rock shows he used to play or thing of the past the crowds don't remember his name uh how many of Sheeran's fans can remember the names of pop stars from the 1960s probably not very many and so now this has become his fate and then he says when my hands can't play the strings the same way which is incredibly powerful because he is completely deconstructing himself His Image here um these are the things that make Ed Sheeran Ed Sheeran these are the things that make Sheeran most powerful to us to his fans and to theill ions of listeners of this song um it's his name it's his voice it's his crazy hair it's his fingers on the strings but in these three lines those things are gone it's a deep reflection of the human condition of life and of the inevitable deterioration that accompanies old age it's not something we typically talk about especially not on the radio not in pop songs not unless we're feeling philosophical or depressed but Sheeran States it because this is a Love Song and because it's based on the transparency of his thoughts unfiltered and pure and because it allows him to place this deconstructed version of himself in front of his lover so what's her reaction now whether or not she does that's almost besides the point the point is that this is something that Sheeran knows for sure that it's not his hair voice guitar skills and what not that are the foundation of their love all those things aside in old age he knows he doesn't think he doesn't hope he knows that she will still love him the same honey could never grow oh it's everen okay so Sheran takes a step away from that deep stuff which is a very good move on his part it's very powerful stuff and that little dose was enough to create a very strong emotional response we react by saying wow that was heartfelt or wow that's so deep and wow what a thoughtful guy but had he continued harping on those problems the the bad things that come with old age this song would have probably taken a very depressing turn uh but the argument is crafted intelligently enough to turn to praise he turns the spotlight on his lover and he tells her that her soul is Evergreen always in season very nice [Music] metaphor baby smil forever in my mind and memory okay so more praise uh and the nice way to put that heavy stuff about growing old and memory fading in a positive light he might grow old his memory might fade the crowds might forget him but her smile is forever in his mind and in his memory we are brimming with pathos I'm thinking about how people Fool in Love in mysterious ways maybe it's so part of a plan again we know this is an expression of thought uh he keeps tagging back to that to remind us that this is authentic and now he suggests that perhaps love is a part of a plan he invokes this notion of fate and of Destiny which really just continues to bolster his pathos I'll continue making the same mistakes hoping that you'll understand okay so this feels a bit random he says he'll just keep on making the same mistakes and we don't really know what he's talking about here what mistakes U perhaps this is something strictly between the two of them but again he seems to be coming clean here and in putting himself out there and voicing his weaknesses He makes himself vulnerable and in making himself vulnerable he makes his argument stronger it's very funny how that works there the baby take me remember to check out teach argument. comom uh grab the corresponding lessons plans and keep breathing new life into your English classroom