Song analysis

     The song I am analyzing is called Are the Good Times really over for good  by Merle Haggard. This song was released in 1981 and is one of my favorites. Some Poetry techniques invluded are Allusion and simile.
    This song contains a ton of Allusions, partly because the singer is comparing how bad times are now and how good they were back then. Haggard uses statements like "a Ford and a Chevy
Could still last ten years, like they should" to show how things used to be. The allusion "It was back before Nixon lied to us all on TV" here Haggard alludes to Nixon and how he was the first president to resign from office. Haggard also uses the simile "Are we rolling down hill
Like a snowball headed for Hell" to show how the state our country is in is diminishing so quickly.  There is a rhyme scheme where typically the second and last line in stanza has the words they end in rhythme. "I wish a buck was still silver/ It was back when the country was strong/ Back before Elvis/ Before the Vietnam war came along"\
     Haggard uses allusions to show how good out country used to be rather than the state is currently in. It gives this song kind of a dark, sad tone. The similes help prove his point that out country is going into bad times.