The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
These tender old, smiling somber eyes
They win, they win
They survived and showed us how they could dance like angels
And as the light came on the glass, so soft
Some suns never set, just earn admonish
They crawl inside to hide away
From aged-old haters, and wink.
Besides, I tried to hide
But I recall the ailing eyes and what that felt like
Cause they were happy, laughing there
Before the daylight, in no pain
But don't allow yourself to make-believe in any kind of virtuous life.
Because each of us is both of them.
One blowing out, one breathing in.
They win, they win
They survived and showed us how they could dance like angels
And as the light came on the glass, so soft
Some suns never set, just earn admonish
They crawl inside to hide away
From aged-old haters, and wink.
Besides, I tried to hide
But I recall the ailing eyes and what that felt like
Cause they were happy, laughing there
Before the daylight, in no pain
But don't allow yourself to make-believe in any kind of virtuous life.
Because each of us is both of them.
One blowing out, one breathing in.
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More Featured Meanings
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Ok, after listening again a few more times over the past few days, I've corrected my own reading of the lyrics:
These tender old, smiling summer eyes, They win, they win. Their survival showed us how they could dance like angels. Even when there's a talking on the clouds, the sun, some of you're never set, just learn to punish. Being calm inside to hide away from age-old haters and wink(weep?), Beside, I try to hide, but I recall the alien eyes and what that felt like 'cause they were happy laughing there, the delayed window came But dont allow yourself to make believe any kind of virtuous life, Because each of us is both of them, one blowing out, one breathing in.
Now, with these seemingly minor changes, I now think the song is a lesson from the perspective of an old guy thinking back on his life, happy about how it went. At the same time, he's also thinking about other old men who are bitter about their past life events and how he himself was like that once ("beside, i try to hide, but i recall those alien eyes and what that felt like") but once time went on and he gained a better perspective on the events of his life, he started to feel better about them and look at them in a more sentimental way ("the delayed window came"). The song ends with a warning to people who are optimists with smiling summer eyes to not look down on those who are more pessimistic because, after all, we all have both attitudes at different times and without experiencing one attitude, we can't fully experience the other ("one breathing out, one breathing in").
The old man's lesson can then be applied to all kinds of past life events and attitudes, no matter the age of the person.