| Jesca Hoop – Tulip Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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A few things: Some listeners have speculated that the flower/tulip might be a metaphor for the opium poppy, in which case the husband would have bought Ada's hand by paying with a bowl, possibly full of opium. And in this case, the thing stealing oxygen, the cotton sword, and the thing cutting her vision could be the high she is getting from the narcotic, either voluntarily administered or forced upon her by her jealous husband. Or maybe they're just a metaphor for the entire progression of events (and the item at the core--opium, the item used to buy her hand) that resulted in her marriage-imprisonment. But if this version is what Hoop intended the song to mean, then what would "...I'll paint the king and queen" then refer to? ...OR... as you state, sawk23, the husband was a court painter, making sense of "I'll paint the king and queen." I muse that the bowl used to buy Ada's hand, in this scenario, would logically be full of rare paint that the suitor derived from the tulip. Maybe the later sensory-numbing she experiences is a manifestation of her feelings of emotional repression and deprivation, or maybe the cotton sword and the item cutting her vision refer to the blindfold used to cover her eyes. Sawk23, I believe that the husband did in fact drown his wife. In an interview with Hoop conducted by The UK's "The Independent," Jesca says of murder ballads, "I love them as a form, because people are singing about killing those they love the most." Also, the husband exhibits the attitude typical of those who murder as an act of passion; "I'll keep her all to me." He wants to think of himself as having done the utmost (even going so far as to end their marriage on *his* terms) to keep her from her extra-marital love interest, BUT she mocks his act of defiance from the grave and even during the act, as evidenced in "This Eine river is mercy at last. DIE, as she laughs, for he's waiting with a dove's nest...", because she ironically gladly welcomes death as a means of finally uniting with her true love. In the lyrics I just quoted, I took the liberty of adding some puncuation (based on the manner in which Jesca stresses "die" as if an imperative) to clarify the wife's sentiments about the act...she curses her husband for his evil, selfish intent but laughs at him because he is actually setting her free. Lastly, the "bird(s)" mentioned throughout the song are symbols of the wife's love, I believe. As time (and the song) progress, I believe the husband becomes more and more despondent, noticing first that his wife is in love with another, then coming to the conclusion that he must cast a net on the flitting bird that is her love for another. This solution to forever ensnare her love is constructed and revealed directly preceding her last chance of-sorts and then her drowning. |
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