I have to say, whoever wrote this "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" song has the worst feel for poetic analogy I've ever seen:
Every rose has its thorn (Cliche much? But OK)
Just like every night has its dawn (Wait, how is a dawn "just like" a thorn? One conventionally symbolizes an end to suffering, while the other is a source of suffering that attends something pleasurable.)
Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song (But how is that "just like" a thorn or a dawn? A cowboy is just a neutral term for a guy, there's nothing incongruous about him singing a sad, sad song. Maybe he's sad! Plus, is this even true? I don't remember Roy Rogers singing any sad, sad songs.)
And then later on we get this:
Though it's been a while now
I can still feel so much pain
Like a knife that cuts you the wound heals
but the scar, that scar will remain
A scar as an analogy for the pain you still feel? How lame is that? Scars don't hurt. They memorialize a pain that may be remembered, but is not still felt. And then two verses later, just in case we forget how unimaginative this guy is, he doesn't come up with another cliche; he revisits the cliche he just used:
And to see you cuts me like a knife
Dumbest member of Poison: This guy.
Hello Mark:
I have to say, I respectfully disagree with your analysis of Poison's "Every Rose has Its Thorn". Bret Michaels is speaking to the constant nature of women--Every beautiful women can cause harm, and this is a universal truth in his eyes, thus the comparison to nights and their dawns (every night does indeed have a dawn), and every cowboy, presumably, has a sad song in their repertoire of songs about life on a cattle drive (Roy Rogers hardly being the traditional archetype of a cowboy and thus is a poor standard for understanding cowboy culture).
As far as scars: physical scars do not hurt, but Bret Michaels is talking about emotional pain. For anyone that has participated in psychotherapy can attest, emotional scars do indeed still hurt.
Dear Professor,
It was not my analysis, but I did comment on it afterwards.
Additionally, people... I am quite literally shocked by the lack of your singin' cowboy history. Crack a country western encyclopedia much? Didn't think so.
The ultimate sad cowboy is Jimmie Rodgers, and actually one can hear his influences on "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." The super-pronounced southern drawl, the silly rhyming mechanisms, to the cheesy chorus... It's all there, and has been since cowboys began singing round the campfire.
Weird... I'm starting to see things in this song that I never had before.
Thanks, Tom. I think.