| Dar Williams – Holly Tree Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Dar says in the liner notes that the song has to do with the role real estate played in the Salem witch trials-- often the women who were targeted were widows who were in possession of prime property for, among other things I'm sure, farmland. Emily is the widow in this song, and the narrator appears to be a midwife helping her through her pregnancy. There is some herbal medicine involved, which would have been held up as evidence of witchcraft. The midwife assures Emily "He'll be careful which way he goes / But he's been kind to us farm widows"-- maybe this hints that the doctor must be careful not to be seen publicly helping these women during the witch hunts? The holly sprig placed by his door might be a secret message that Emily requires assistance. Unfortunately Emily and perhaps even the midwife and doctor are finally caught, put on trial, and killed; they saw this coming but never imagined anyone could be so crazed and cruel to kill a pregnant woman: "Any Christian ever loved an infant in a manger / Saves the baby. They'll save the baby." The last two verses are about a new couple moving into Emily's estate-- a farmer and his wife. The pastor, most likely complicit in the trials, is "blessing" this transaction, but the farmer's wife senses or perhaps even knows outright that there is something wrong with this-- maybe she sees a portent of her own future when her own husband dies: "Every time she nears the hearth she feels a little colder." In the last line we find out the baby was not saved, after all, despite the optimism of the midwife narrator. |
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