Wake Up!

This is a mysterious song, and I came here hoping to see other's interpretations of it and was sad to see no one had yet. So as a result, here's my best attempt at deciphering it:

"Fall upon my brow, this signature of love" Not entirely sure about this line, but I think 'fall upon my brow' is a metaphor for something like 'I have realized the idea/it has entered my mind' and 'your signature of love' would be an idea that that someone else shared with the main person out of love and concern for the person. Like an outsider viewing the situation/idea from a non-biased standpoint and seeing that it's harming the person so they tell them what they think about it. But this is a tricky line, and I would like to see what others have to say about it.

"Descending from the canopy of poison vapor" 'Descending' suggest that with this new perspective comes a colder harder reality. At least you are no longer in 'the canopy of poison vapor' or in other words you are abandoning what was harmful.

"Filtered through the cold this magic of the air" Also suggesting that by reexamining whatever it is you were examining with a new, less optimistic and non-biased view ('filtered through the cold') the 'magic of the air' doesn't seem so magical anymore.

"Is blushing every cheek and soul thereafter" Looking back at what you previously had thought was embarrassing to you and for others who had the same realization as you.

"Wake up to the light, the light thats always there" Again with the realization idea. You 'wake up' to the truth or the 'light' and its always been there, you just weren't 'awake'. I love this line :)

"Your mind is tangled from its ever-thinking glory" You're trying to grasp and understand the idea, and while the idea was 'cold' and you had to 'descend' from your more appealing false views, theres something beautiful about the reality of the idea.

"Run your fingers through your bristling beard or hair" Stopping to think about the idea (like some people will pull their hair back or comb their beards while thinking)

"And watch the endless butterflies within escaping" Not too sure about this line. Perhaps the butterflies represent the comfort you found in the the idea that you're abandoning.

"Fall upon my lap, your signature of God" "Descendant from the everlasting curdling wonder" Again, not too sure about these two lines. At first I thought that maybe 'Fall upon my lap, your signature of God' meant that someone was sharing their views of God with the main person. However, now, when I look at how the wording is equivalent to 'signature of love' and how 'signature of love' was someone else's input, I am also considering that 'signature of God' is about how important the idea/situation is. However, 'descendant from the everlasting curdling wonder' doesn't really make sense in with the former proposal. I can't really figure these lines out for sure and again, I am curious about other's interpretations of it.

"Let the blinkers flake and wipe the dust away" "Let ripples settle and the riverbed appear" Letting any contention/struggles you had with your new realization go

"And watch the endless butterflies around returning" Previously I had related butterflies to comfort and how when the person lost comfort when they abandoned whatever idea they had for this new idea that they realized is the truth. Now the butterflies are returning and the person is finding comfort in this new idea.

In the end, I'm pretty sure this song is about a realization that the main person had. However, whether this song is about the general eye-opening realizations that we all sometimes have, or if it's specifically about gaining or losing faith in God, I'm not sure. Many parts of the song ('poison vapor', 'magic of the air', 'signature of God') suggest that the song is about a loss of faith in God. However, art of me is telling me that that is not correct, and that this song is more about the wider subject of an eye-opening realization.

Of course, the song is openly and widely interpretative, but it strongly leans towards the romantic in its presentation. I have to disagree with the homosexual interpretation. . .at first I thought the same but the song is distinct in the Singers possessing a beard AND hair while the other party has a beard OR hair, leaving it ambiguous or perhaps pointing to multiple people. I always took the butterflies as the fluttery feeling you have when you fall in love, which in the story both escapes and returns and returns again. The signature of love, to me, has always been epitomized by a kiss, hence a kiss upon the brow, an expression of affection. Perhaps, the fall upon my lap line is in reference to humankind being a creation of God, hence, the signature of God falling into his Lap is literally a person falling affenctionately there.The other bulk is widely diaphanous, could have endless meanings but always leaves me with a weirdly wonderful, floating feeling. I agree 100 percent with the parallel structure, each line is not close-ended but rather loops seamlessly into the next and back towards the former. It reminds of the ourborous concept of things always returning right back where they started. Hands down, my favorite song. Ever.

I love the parallel structure of the song, and I believe any interpretation has to be based on that structure. Though the song doesn't really have verses, per se, it can easily be decomposed into two sections. From "Fall upon my brow" to "endless butterflies within escaping" makes up the first section, then the rest of the song is the second section, which strongly parallels the first section, with some notable changes (this is not a complete list of the differences between the two sections, but the ones I feel are important to the interpretation):

1) "Descending from the canopy of poison vapor" becomes "Descending from the everlasting curdling wonder" Not sure of the exact interpretation here, but there's a definite change in mood between the two lines: the first line is distinctly negative, while the second has a notable positive tone (poison vapor // everlasting wonder)

2) "Your mind is tangled from its ever-thinking glory" becomes "Your mind untangled from its ever-thinking glory" This has probably the clearest interpretation in the song. There's a struggle in the first section; something that's causing mental turmoil. In the second section, though, the mind has become untangled, and there is presumably peace of mind.

3) "Run your fingers through your bristling beard or hair" becomes "Run your fingers through my bristling beard and hair" My favorite pair of lines in the song. Only two words changed, but the meaning changes entirely from first section to second. In the first, the speaker is talking to someone who is running his fingers through his own hair, which I think clearly means he's caught up in thinking about the issue that is the song's subject (as Eegabooga said, many people run their fingers through their hair while thinking intently). In the second section though (this is where I disagree with you, Eegabooga), the subject is running their fingers through the speaker's hair. When does one person run his/her fingers through another person's beard or hair? When they're in love.

Overall, how I interpret the song is that the speaker is a man who is in love with another man. The other man returns the affection, but is struggling with the idea of a homosexual relationship (likely from a religious hangup, because of the references to God). After the first section elapses, the second man reconciles himself with the idea of being gay, and the two have a happy relationship.

Of course, this isn't the only interpretation. At first I couldn't tell if the speaker and subject in the first and second sections are same. The subject in the first section and the speaker in the second section seem to be male (because of the references to beards). If the speaker and subject are the same in the two sections, it seems to me that it has to be one continuous story of a gay relationship. If they're different, my interpretation falls apart, and it seems that it might tell two different stories: one of a failed relationship, and the second of a successful one. The reason I think it's one continuous story, though, is the last important difference:

4) "And watch the endless butterflies within escaping" becomes "And watch the endless butterflies around returning" To me, this is important because of the word "returning". It ties the two sections together, and implies that the sections come from the same story. After all, how can butterflies return unless they first escaped, as they did in the first section?