A Literary Appreciation of "Imagine" Song by John Lennon

Imagine by John Lennon is a free verse poem about the concept of an ideal world that the speaker desires. This poem was written in March 1971 during the Vietnam War as a part of the anti-war movement. The word “imagine” is chosen as a title because the speaker knows that his/ her vision is a form of imagination, almost impossible to visualize and therefore, “you” in line 13 which refers to the reader or the one the speaker is talking to might disagree with the speaker’s vision and “may say [the speaker] is a dreamer.”

In the first stanza, the speaker opens the poem with controversial phrases “[i]magine there’s no heaven” and “[n]o hell below us” to bring up the issue that the existence of “heaven” and “hell” as an afterlife world motivates people to do anything “good” in their perception in order to get to heaven; without knowing that this urge is secretly used by some parties to gain benefit for their own interests. The speaker is trying to say if “there [are] no countries”, there would be no boundaries to divide people into certain groups, nothing to use as a justification to kill another human being or to die for a territory which in fact; can be shared equally. If there is “[n]o religion”, there would be nothing to war about, to separate people from one another or to hate each other for. By saying “[i]magine no possession”, the speaker indicates how possession caused inequality between the haves and have nots, how the world hunger can easily be ended if people are willing to put aside possession and sharing the world in peace.

It cannot be denied that every war occurs as a result of the seizure for territory, power, religion, and possession. Even though the speaker’s vision seems like a perfect solution to end all wars, it is preposterous to eliminate all beliefs, all boundaries, all differences and all concepts of thought which currently exist to simply reset the world for a new chapter. To achieve the speaker’s ideal world, each and every people in the world needs to think, act and treat others as one, which logically cannot be done instantly. An ideal world is a world where diversity exists and unites people, a world where there is no hunger, greed, envy and lies, a world where people feel safe, a world without worries and tears, a world in which people could express their feelings freely without getting hated for. The ideal world would only take place if people start caring, start to end all wars, save our nature, treat others equally, be kind, live for today and share the world in peace.

(The analysis was written by me to be submitted as an assignment for Poetry Class, English Department, University of Pamulang)

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