I chose Dance of Death because it is one of my favorite songs. The lyrics without the music behind it can easily stand alone as a really interesting story poem, to me it seems more like a poem being read out loud and enhanced by music behind it.
The song has 12 unique stanzas that form a beginning, middle and end including all the elements necessary in a good story. The plot starts with our speaker, the singer, having a drink by a fire. He then somehow falls prey to spirits that force him to do the dance of death. He reluctantly submitted to their actions and waited for his chance to escape. Somehow a skirmish broke out between the spirits and he quickly took that chance to escape. And the story ends with:
“To this day I guess I’ll never know
Just why they let me go
But I’ll never go dancing no more
‘Til I dance with the dead”
So we have a plot including the exposition being him enjoying his evening, the rising action involving his abduction by the undead, the climax involving his escape, falling action of him actually escaping and a denouncement which I included below. The setting is on a late moonlit evening by a fire. The characters include our protagonist being the speaker and the antagonist being the undead spirits that capture him and force him to do the dance of death.
All the while there is a specific rhyme scheme and structured format all devices unique to a poem.
