Lyrics
Point of View (Lyric)
- Definition
- Point of view is the narrative perspective a lyric speaks from—first person ("I"), second person ("you"), or third person ("she/he/they")—and it determines who the listener imagines is speaking and who is being addressed.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Songwriting stage
- writing
In practice
Most lyrics default to first person because it creates instant intimacy: the listener feels like they are hearing a real confession rather than a report. Second person pulls the listener directly into the story, as if the song is speaking to them, which works well for apology songs, advice songs, or love songs. Third person creates distance and lets a writer tell someone else's story, which suits narrative or character-driven songs.
Beginning writers often drift between points of view without meaning to, which can confuse a listener about who is talking to whom. A useful revision habit is to read through a lyric sheet and mark every pronoun, checking that any shift in point of view is a deliberate choice rather than an accident.
Example
A songwriter drafts a breakup verse in first person—'I packed the car before the sun came up'—then notices the bridge has slipped into second person, telling an unnamed 'you' what they should have done. During a revision pass, she rewrites the bridge back into first person so the whole song stays inside one consistent narrator's perspective.