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Mark Forsyth claims The Beatles' 'Yesterday' 'goes nowhere' because each verse…

2026-08-05 · 23:52 UTC ·@PerellClips ·2 min read

Brief

The Beatles' 'Yesterday' is presented as deliberately circular: Mark Forsyth observes each verse begins and ends with the same word ('yesterday' or 'suddenly'), which he says makes the song 'go nowhere.' David Perell says that aesthetic repetition conveys being stuck, and his 2026-08-05 clip catalogs 13 rhetorical techniques used to make writing and songs memorable.

Why it matters

Mark Forsyth claims The Beatles' 'Yesterday' 'goes nowhere' because each verse begins and ends on the same word: the first and third verses bookend with 'yesterday', while the second verse begins and ends with 'suddenly' (e.g., 'Suddenly, there's a shadow hanging over me... Oh, yesterday came suddenly').

Key details

  • David Perell argues the song's circular repetition is an aesthetic device that communicates being stuck—moving from 'yesterday' to 'suddenly' and back closes the circle and reinforces the lyric's theme of inertia.
  • Perell's clip/thread (posted 2026-08-05 by @david_perell) timestamps a conversation with Mark Forsyth and enumerates 13 rhetorical techniques used in memorable writing and music: polyptoton; chiasmus; isocolon; tricolon; anaphora; epistrophe; synesthesia; personification; schesis onomaton; paradox; veridical paradox; hyperbole; iambic pentameter.
Source evidence

"Yesterday" is one of The Beatles' legendary songs. But you've probably haven't noticed what the song is doing.

Mark Forsyth breaks it down:

"John Lennon complained about that song, because it was written by Paul McCartney. But John complained that the song goes nowhere. And it's true that it goes nowhere."

"The first verse begins with the word yesterday and ends with the word yesterday. And then the second verse does exactly the same thing with suddenly:

'Suddenly, there's a shadow hanging over me. I'm not half the man I used to be. Oh, yesterday came suddenly.' And then the third verse does the same thing with yesterday again."

"It's very much a song about somebody being stuck in the same place. He starts on yesterday, finishes on yesterday. He starts on suddenly, finishes on suddenly. He doesn't get anywhere."

David: "Through aesthetics, you can communicate something that enhances the words you're trying to say. You could say words about being stuck and you can show the stuckness by going from yesterday, to suddenly, back to yesterday. The circle closes where it began."

@Inkyfool

Video

David Perell (@david_perell)

Mark Forsyth is one of the world's leading experts on what makes a piece of writing memorable.

He's famous for a book called The Elements of Eloquence, which follows the writing strategy of writers like Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, and also musicians like the Beatles and Taylor Swift.

We went through these tools together, one by one, so you can use them in your own writing.

Timestamps:
Technique 1: Polyptoton
Techniques 2 & 3: Chiasmus and Isocolon
Technique 4: Tricolon
Technique 5: Anaphora
Technique 6: Epistrophe
Technique 7: Synesthesia
Technique 8: Personification
Technique 9: Schesis Onomaton
Technique 10: Paradox
Technique 11: Veridical Paradox
Technique 12: Hyperbole
Technique 13: Iambic Pentameter

I've shared the full conversation with Mark below. If you'd rather watch the full thing on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

I've shared clips from the conversation in the replies as well.

Video

— https://nitter.net/david_perell/status/2085085020452974884#m