John Lennon's Song, Imagine: Uniting Us to Make Heaven on Earth
Imagine a world with peace; a world with no possessions; a world without hatred. Wouldn’t that be amazing to live in that kind of world? These thoughts all went through John Lennon’s head as he sat down and wrote a very influential song, “Imagine” in 1971. This song was written during the Vietnam War, the peace movement, and the first Nixon Administration. A very large amount of the popular culture of that time, were centered all around those factors. In his song, “Imagine”, Lennon describes what divides us and what should be uniting us to make heaven on Earth. In the first stanza, John Lennon wants us to forget about our worries and just live life for the day. Most people believe in a higher power, or life after death but he wants us to “imagine there’s no heaven” (Lennon line 1) so we can just live life for what it is. There’s no need to live life worrying about “no hell below us” (3). Be happy and live life “for today” (6). Because you never know what life will throw at you or what will happen the next day, there’s no guarantees in life so just be happy for the day, “its easy if you try”(2). “Imagine all the people”/”Living life for today”(5,6), nothing can make us forget about of cares, worries, and problems in life like each day for that day. People so often tend to tie themselves down and stress themselves out with worries about tomorrow. Why stress about concerns of the next day when that day isn’t even there yet? So many people worry about the unexplainable and end up on medication because they live life a nervous wreck thinking about the next day. People would be happier if they were “living for today”(6). In the second stanza, Lennon’s lyrics point out two very powerful things that have caused much war and bloodshed in our lives, countries and religion. If we all got along and had no differences in our countries then there would be “nothing to kill or die for” (9). “Imagine all the people” (11) getting along, no national security and “living life in
Cited: Lennon, John. “Imagine.” Imagine. Apple Records, 1971.