(Ancient Text by , translated by ) and Hey There Delilah (Contemporary Song by Plain White T's)
“Hey There Delilah” is a love song written by a musician who sings about his long-distance lover, or rather, sings to her. He addresses Delilah and explains how much he misses her because he has to be miles away from her as he’s on tour for his music career. Similarly, Cicero is separated from Terentia because of the duties he also has to fulfill. Both the Plain White T’s and Cicero start off by positively comparing their lovers to a form of light. The singer starts off the song by proclaiming his love for Delilah, saying that “Times Square can’t shine as bright as you” while Cicero on page 187 cries “Alas, light of my life, for whom I yearn”. The singer then goes on to sing “Hey there Delilah I got so much left to say if every simple song I wrote to you would take your breath away I’d write it all, even more in love with me you’d fall, we’d have it all” showing that he does not write to her as often as he feels that she deserves. Similarly, on page 195 Cicero writes “I do send you a letter less often than I might…while every hour of my life is a misery…when I write to you or read a letter from you I am so overcome with weeping”. Cicero often feels pity for Terentia and apologizes for not being able to be there for her as she deserves more than that. We can see that both the singer from the Plain White T’s and Cicero try to fill the void of their absence with words to make up for it.
The greatest similarity between the two pieces is that we only get the male first-person perspective (we don’t get Delilah’s response to the song nor do we get Terentia’s letters to Cicero). This makes it difficult to assume whether or not the lovers had a happy ending.
An obvious difference between the two pieces is that the words written to Delilah are in the form of a song that the singer performs to hundreds of people whereas Cicero’s letters to Terentia are private. The two pieces, however, encompass romanticism in very similar ways. Upon further examination of “Hey There Delilah”, we can infer that the singer writes his words to mitigate for the pain that his lover feels about the long-distance, however, given Cicero’s constant weeping in the first few letters, we can infer that his writing is to vent his emotions and sadness about the distance rather than mitigate Terentia’s emotions about the situation (this is specifically evident on page 191 when Cicero writes “But, most miserable as you are, I am more miserable than you”).
Page 187: “Alas, light of my life, for whom I yearn” and But to you and our darling Tulia I cannot write without a flood of tears”.
Page 191: “I am overwhelmed with grief, my dear Terentia, and I am not more tortured by my own miseries, than by yours and my own children. But, most miserable as you are, I am more miserable than you”