| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Sorrowful Wife Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I don't think that narrator is dead from the start. This songs' timeline goes through fall to spring. This album is released in 2001 after Nick fought his alcohol and drug addictions thus i think this song is about his addiction. Ironic thing is that main character in this song is barely alive in first part of the song, and songs' tempo is very slow. After he dies, song picks up the pace and he screams(his mind) but can't do anything cause he's dead and silent. "I married my wife on the day of the eclipse" This has literal and symbolic meaning at the same time. You guessed that symbolic meaning of eclipse is some kind of doom. Also, eclipse takes place at October and could symbolize near end of cycle(life if you want). Then he says: "Our friends awarded her courage with gifts" In my view narrator is seriously ill(addiction?), but he and she believe in recovery and friends awarded her courage with gifts because she is brave enough to try to convert him. "Now as the nights grow longer and the season shifts" Month or 2 passed from the wedding "I look to my sorrowful wife Who is quietly tending her flowers" This represents her hope in him. Person who's tending flowers expect flowers to bloom in near future, thus she expects him to "overcome" his addiction. "The water is high on the beckoning river" Clearly month or 2 more, passed since rains fall, snow melts and river is high.(Januarry, Februarry) "beckoning river" indicates suicidal thoughts. "I made her a promise I could not deliver" He promised her that he will be "clean", but failed. "And the cry of the birds sends a terrible shiver" "Through me and my sorrowful wife" The cry of the birds is innuendo of death, especially raven and crow which are almost only birds you can hear in winter. This is "turnover" in song. At this moment some kind of lethal disease developed by his addiction(like cirrhosis in alcoholics) and they sense near death. "Who is shifting the furniture around Who is shifting the furniture around" She prepares for life without him "Now we sit beneath the knotted Yew And the bluebells bob around our shoes" It's spring(bluebells) and he is dead. "knotted Yews" are growing on cemeteries and near churches also Yaw symbolizes ascension and immortality. "The task of remembering the telltale clues Goes to my lovely, my sorrowful wife" He is dead and he remembers nothing. Also, it is said that if one falls asleep under Yaw tree, he/she will loose memory. "Who is counting the days on her fingers" She is counting the days for how long he is gone. "Come on and help me babe Come on now Help me babe I was blind" Also very strong indication of his guilt and addiction. "The grass here grows long and high Twists right up to the sky White clouds roll on by" One more clear indication that he is dead. Imagine yourself lying under the grass. What would you see? Grass reaching to the sky and clouds roll on by. "A loose wind last night blew down Black trees bent to the ground Their blossoms made such a sound That I could not hear myself think babe" He is dead for some time now and this indicates that he is in so quiet place that even things that are soundless to us(blossoming tree) seamed to him like unbearable noise. Sorry for my English (not my native language). |
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