This felt like a good time to use a song I ran across a while ago. The song I decided to dissect was “Willpower” by Yutaka Yamada. It mainly composed of feelings of despair and a descent into darkness. Yet it clings to the notion of having the willpower to rise above that and bring themselves back into the light.

Some lyrics within the song that focus on the ideal of the descent into darkness would be;

1. I’ve been waiting, shrouded within shadows
   It’s reminding me of when I used to not care, not at all
2. The future shone so brightly back then
   Have I always walked this path strewn to the side?
   
   First they mention about how the darkness reminds them of how much they ceased to care. Then it goes on the past version of themselves, how it looked so easy and cheerful even to the point where it’s questioned on the path they used to walk.
   

      3. Can’t always be blinded is it best for me
      To turn the other way, shutting out my past?
      Is it too late to reclaim the past that I’d forsaken?
      
These point out the issues that are causing the troubles of their despairs. To decide if it’s best to stay this way or see if it’s possible to return to one’s former self.

     4. With you alongside me, what was forgotten can still be found
      I know that I’m alive
      I’ll find the strength that I need to save the
     Ones I love, rise unafraid and overcome all my fears
      I won’t let it consume me now

This last stanza to the song revealed the turning point and determination to change one’s self. It doesn’t completely remove those dark thoughts but instead embrace them and go past them to return back into the light seen back then.

The poem I use is to rather contrast than compare due to the difference in their insights. The Lucy poems by Williams Wordsworth focus on the great qualities of a maiden named Lucy who unfortunately lost her life. The focus on this poem goes from such love and appreciation to the descent to darkness from loss.  

1. When she I loved look’d every day
   Fresh as a rose in June,
   
   
2. A Maid whom there were none to praise
   And very few to love:
   
   These two focus on the beautiful aspects of Lucy and how rare a girl like her really is. It gives the value and beauty she emits even if she didn’t realize on her own.
   
3. She lived unknown, and few could know
   When Lucy ceased to be;
   But she is in her grave, and oh,
   The difference to me!
   
   The last stanza in the second section centralizes all that is needed to be said on the descent to darkness. Such a gemstone of her magnitude to be unrealized by many. And to the man, the impact of her death hits him even harder with that realization.

It’s interesting to see how the path from one way to another would end up as if it was switched around. “Willpower”and the Lucy poems are parallel opposites when it comes to this. One sees the light due to their loved ones and invoke themselves to rise through the pain. As the other falls into despair witnessing the loved one he so cherished disappear before his very sight. It’s a battle between two ideals. It’s a way to embrace the two sides of the same coin.