By Maria Bitrou (Level: Upper Intermediate)
Topic: Imagine, based on the song by John Lennon
See lyrics at: http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/john_lennon/imagine.html

This song is written by John Lennon. It's a song about freedom and it analyses four basic ideas: The first and, in my opinion the most important, is the idea of possession. The idea of possession makes us want to believe in heaven, countries and religions. The other three ideas are the religions, the countries and heaven.

The most interesting part of this song are the stylistic devices. If someone observe the lyrics they can understand that the first, the fifth and sixth lyrics are associated. In the first verse he is asking us to imagine that there's no heaven and as a result of that we would live for today. In the second verse he is telling us to imagine that there are no countries and religions. If we did that, we would live our lives in peace. Finally, in the fourth verse, he is asking us to imagine that there are no possessions and that this would be good because we could share all the world. In the first two verses he believes that we can do it. He is trying to make us imagine that it's easy if we try a bit. He uses lyrics like: "It's easy if you try" or "It isn't hard to do" but in the fourth verse he questions if we can finally do it by saying: "I wonder if you can". Another trick is the connection between the first and the third lyric. For example, in the first verse he says: ""Imagine there's no heaven...no hell bellow us" or in the second: "Imagine there's no countries...nothing to kill or die for".

 John Lennon thought that if we had no heaven, no countries, religions and no possessions we could be free. There would be no reason to die and no greed or hunger. The main two verses, the third and the fifth: "You may say I'm a dreamer..and the world will be as one", are a hope that some day the world will be as one, that we'll have no heaven, countries, religions and possessions. He imagined us all together and loved.