"Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines" Journal 2

RENT-Your Eyes:
Your eyes
As we said our goodbyes
Can't get them out of my mind
And I find I can't hide
From your eyes
The ones that took me by surprise
The night you came into my life
Where there's moonlight I see your eyes
How'd I let you slip away
When I'm longing so to hold you
Now I'd die for one more day
'Cause there's something I should have told you
Yes there's something I should have told you
When I looked into your eyes
Why does distance make us wise?
You were the song all along
And before this song dies
I should tell you I should tell you
I have always loved you
You can see it in my eyes
Mimi

Towards the end of the musical RENT, the protagonist, Roger, watches his love die, and sings this song as a reaction. "Your Eyes" is about the regret in not openly showing his love for her, while Pablo Neruda's poem is of accepting that he is no longer with her. Roger repeatedly expresses that he will "die for one more day", and that his song for her is dying. Through his figurative dying alongside Mimi's death, the speaker emphasizes the regert and hindsight that one has on their deathbed. In "Tonight I Can write the saddest lines", the speaker is focusing on HIS feelings towards this loss of love. He does this by constantly referring back to "I" and "My" and "Me". In "Your Eyes", the speaker also uses "I" and other personal pronouns to show that he is under more burden than she is, even though she is the one dying. The main difference between these two works is that "Your Eyes" shows that it is about regret while "Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines" is about accepting the loss.