The song uses various poetic devices to describe a girl's free spirit. It employs end rhyme, slant rhyme, internal rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, repetition, simile, metaphor, and personification. The lyrics paint vivid images through visual, hearing, and touch imagery, comparing the girl to leaves floating freely in the wind and stream. The chorus reinforces that she desires love and cannot be bound or held down.

1. By: Josh Abbot Band

2. “This world is far from small Lord she knows that she’s won
And her heart is the center of it all And I come undone
And there’s a river that runs through hills And she will be free
And it’s never still Like the leaves
Listen closely to the sky Floating in the wind and the stream
And it’ll show you how to dot life’s eyes She will not be bound
And don’t be afraid of the girl By anything that tries to drag her down
That decides to run Oh and all that girl wants to be is loved
It’s half the fun... And her heart is a river in my blood
And she will be free She will be free
Like the leaves Like the leaves
Floating in the wind and the stream Floating in the wind and the stream
She will not be bound She will not be bound
By anything that tries to drag her down By anything that tries to drag her down
Oh and all that girl wants to be is loved And all that girl wants to be is loved
And her heart is a river in my blood Yeah all that girl wants to be is loved
I met her under the summer sun All that girl wants to be is loved...
She taught me beauty passion and grace And her heart is a river in my blood...”
And so many things
When I look into her eyes
I grow still
How else can I process all these things I feel?

3.  End Rhyme
 Slant Rhyme
 Internal Rhyme
 Alliteration
 Assonance
 Consonance
 Refrain/Chorus
 Repetition

4. Ex. “This world is far from small
And her heart is the center of it all”
Explain: In these lines “small” and
“all” are the end rhyme. The ending of these
words rhyme and they’re at the end of the
lines. This is why they’re considered an end
rhyme.

5. Ex. “She will not be bound
By anything that tries to drag her down”
Explain: In these pair of lines
“bound” and “down” are the slant rhyme.
They’re the slant rhyme because they are close
to rhyming and almost sound alike.

6. Ex. “And she will be free
Like the leaves”
Explain: In the first line “she” and
“free” rhyme inside the line. This is why
it is an internal rhyme.

7. Ex. “I met her under the summer sun
She taught me things I had yet to learn”
Explain: In the first line the “s”
sound in “summer” and “sun” are just alike.
This is what makes it alliteration.

8. Ex. “I met her under the summer sun
She taught me things that I had yet to learn”
Explain: In the top line The
assonance is “u” in the words “summer” and
“sun”. Since they both sound the same and are
in the same line they are assonance.

9. Ex. “Oh and all that girl wants to be is loved
And her heart is a river in my blood”
Explain: In the last line the “r”
sound in both of those words sounds the same
which makes it a consonance.

10. Ex. “And she will be free”
Explain: In the song the line
above is sung by the whole band. This is the
chorus of the song.

11. Ex. “And all that girl wants to be is loved
Yeah all that girl wants to be is loved
All that girl wants to be is loved...”
Explain: These lines are repeated in a
row making it repetition.

12.  Simile
 Metaphor
 Personification

13. Ex. “And she will be free
Like the leaves
floating in the wind and the stream”
Explain: This is a simile
because it is comparing two things
“she” and “leaves” using as or like.

14. Ex. “Oh and all that girl wants to be is loved
And her heart is a river in my
blood.”
Explain: In the second line it is
comparing two things “her heart” and “a river”
without using like or as.

15. Ex. “Listen closely to the sky
And it’ll show you how to dot life’s
eyes”
Explain: This is personification
because the sky is given a human quality in
these lines. The sky can’t show you how to dot
life’s eyes.

16.  Visual
 Hearing
 Touch

17. Ex. “And when she smiles
Lord she knows she’s
won”
Explain: This is an
example of visual imagery because you can
see her smile in real life.

18. Ex. “And there’s a river that runs through hills
And it’s never still”
Explain: You can hear the river
running through the hills. The sound of
the river flowing is what makes this
hearing imagery.

19. Ex. “Like the leaves
floating in the wind and the stream”
Explain: This is an
example of touch because you can feel the
wind and the leaves as they fall to the ground.