The song “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is, for many, easily one of the greatest songs of all time. An important reason that “Bohemian Rhapsody” has been so popular for over 40 years is that it embodied everything Queen is known for and combines everything they do so perfect together. The overall theme is  relaying how different his life could have been, and how much happier he might have been had he just been able to be himself his whole of his life. What you may not know by just listening to the song once is that it is filled with many different types of poetic devices.

Right off the bat in the intro in the song the song starts off with:

Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality

Starting the song off with a metaphor like this is a perfect way to portray the overall theme of the rest of the song. With this metaphor Queen is saying that Freddie Mercury is in the middle of too many things happening at once. He feels as though he is stuck and has no way to escape. We know it is a metaphor because he is not actuly stuck. This was just a perfect way for him to explain his situation of being stuck in unconquerable problems to his readers.

Next Literay device is a little bit more stuttle:

Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me!

This allusion may slip by some listeners ears if they do not fully understand it. An allusion in poetry is when there is a brief, intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, or movement. In this example, there is a reference to Christan belifs. Beelzebub is another name for the devil or satan. He uses the allusion to express that he feels he needs to be punished for his actions and sins. These sins are so bad that they will give him his own devil, put aside just for him.

Lastly Queen is able to use a hyperbole perfectly in their record:

So you think you can love me and leave me to die?

This a clear exaggeration/ hyperbole because he will clearly not actually die if he is to be left. Him being left behind is being exaggerated because he wants to show the pain he will be in, in such a large way.

At the end of the day Bohemian Rhapsody would not be where it is today, heard by everyone, inducted into the grammy hall of fame, without its poetic devices in its lyrics. It gives the song a deeper meaning then just the words heard by the listener.