| The Weakerthans – The Prescience of Dawn Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I get the impression that this song is describing a protagonist that feels overburdened by the stress of trying to live up to what society expects of a modern man. I think there our themes of escapism and defeatism vying for attention here. I feel like the sirens aren't literal, rather the protagonist is likening the sound of his alarm clock to that of ambulance sirens, as he feels his alarm brings him closer to death. He hits the snooze button, reluctant to start his day at his mundane office job. He would rather dream of a more romantic (but ultimately less impressive to greater society) job as a hardware salesman in a rural setting. That, or dream of being free from that job (hence rowing past the office windows). The idea that our protagonist is trying to live up to society's expectations of a successful modern man is further explored with the next two lines, where he rhetorically asks his mother if its okay for a man to show weakness,and asks his father to show him what he should be achieving before death. The next couple of lines have always eluded me somewhat, but I think I agree with weakerthan17's comment above that the guy might be a failing writer of sorts. He is perhaps reaching the point where he realises he isn't going to achieve what he set out to do, and maybe he should just succumb to a more conventional adult life (hence "I don't want a second chance...") Going back to the theme of escapism, our protagonist wants to drown everything out and relax, but is haunted by his defeatist attitude as he (again not literally) hear through the noise of the static "you should have known", suggesting that he believes that he could never have achieved greatness, that he was always destined to live in the predestined path that society has carved out for him. I'm probably a little off the mark with a lot of that, but in a nutshell, I think the song is concerned with the idea of free will versus fate. |
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