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| Mumford & Sons – The Cave Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Really interesting insights -- I've been trying to see how Plato's Cave Allegory works its way in here and you've lade it out nicely. One thing you didn't comment on was the lyric "tie me to a post and block my ears," which directly references the sirens scene in the Odyssey (Odysseus asks his crewmates to tie him to the mast so that he can hear the sirens' song but cannot escape to meet his death in their trap). This sets up an interesting contrast -- with Plato, freedom comes from escaping the chains, and following the path that the others in the cave have not walked before. In the Odyssey, however, Odysseus' being tied up gives him a new freedom, as he allows himself to listen to the song without letting it kill him, and thus tempting but ultimately foiling fate. Also, there is an interesting paradox in the last stanza: he wants freedom, but he wants to live his life as it's "meant to be" -- an idea that beautifully sums up the contrasting ideas presented in Homer and Plato. |
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