Our Wings Are Burning

I'd have to say, I don't always understand all of Virgin Black's lyrics, even after reading them 50 times. For example, the first line in this song. It sounds really cool, but I'm not sure what it means. "pain of a severed soul" sounds like he's talking about the pain of being a soul seperated from God - the pain of being alive on this Earth. The next few lines sound like a really cool way of expressing worship. "And my own pulluted breath, I speak the old man's words in a pursuasive eloquence" - My own polluted breath, in my opinion, is him humbling himself and "old man" is often a term used to describe a father, or in this case, Father God as he speaks his words in a persuasive eloquence. "This unlamented head" - kind of different from the usual Virgin Black lyrics, but cool nonetheless. Again, as cool as "On the crest of fire, our wings are burning, how glorious the pain" sounds, I'm not sure what it means either. I'm sure this isn't much help to the reader, but maybe somebody else can explain that one. I'll have to disagree, sort of, with theillusionary on the the line about "the ways of God shriek of tune" - to me, this is a classic Virgin Black line about the church going astray. It's not the first time they've wrote about it. All is lost but hope.

To me this is talking about the fire of God that is deep within His Children to tell people about Him. "And the ways of God, shriek out of tune" This part here is in reference to how God's ways are not the ways of the world. "All is lost but hope" That hope is God.

I'm going to have to take this song line by line, like most of Virgin Black's other music. This being one of my favorite song's by Virgin Black, I want it to have the most accurate meaning. I do agree with Drake in some of the points he brought up.

We fell in love, With dust in our lids And the pain of a severed soul (Getting saved, but still living like the world)

We lowered our heads and lifted our face Placed our bodies in celebration (Keeping the pride that we should of let go of)

On the lips of a mutilated man I carry the bones of a deformed child (Kind of tough to figure out, but I think it means he doesn't have any respect for Jesus. "Carrying bones" is basically a metaphore for the respect of humans. "On the lips of a mutilated man" [Jesus], "I carry the bones of a deformed child"

And my own polluted breath I speak the old man's words In a persuasive eloquence (He brings others down using "the old man's" [Satan in my opinion] words.)

Bless the dust that hides This unlamented head (No matter how bad he is, he wants to be saved)

On the crest of fire, our wings are burning (He just barely escapes hell. He's so close he can feel the fire.)

How glorious the pain (Joyful that he has been saved and knows the pain could be alot worse)

And the ways of God, shriek out of tune All is lost but hope (He doesn't follow God's word, but he is saved, so there is still hope for him)

Hope this helps. Feel free to post corrections/comments/etc.

For me this is more about getting saved, and the conviction we feel when we do wrong, tha we have sinned

We fell in love, with dust in our lids And the pain of a severed soul
(Getting saved)

We lowered our heads and lifted our face Placed our bodies in celebration On the lips of a mutilated man I carry the bones of a deformed child (This is about our human nature, and how we should abandon it and follow the words of jesus, instead of carrying the renmants of our former lives)

And my own polluted breath I speak the old man's words In a persuasive eloquence (I agree with Sir Doof on this one, old man here probably refers to Satan more than to God

Bless the dust that hides This unlamented head (The things that make us realize how much we depend on the Lord

On the crest of fire, our wings are burning How glorious the pain And the ways of God, shriek out of tune (The conviction of having sinned and needing to be forgiven, and how we are not in communion with Him until we pray and ask forgivance. Though it hurts, this is also a sign that we are really saved.

All is lost but hope On the crest of fire Our wings are burning To the wind's anthem All is lost but hope (He has lost all he earthly was, and only has the hope of Heaven which guides him/her.)

Am I the only who thinks that he is talking about the loss of life's,destruction,'pain how humanity is crushed and how the blood is spilled in the War. Mocking the Jesus saying for humanity and showing us the reality.

"We fell in love, with dust in our lids And the pain of a severed soul " This makes me think more of soul mates and a wedding but as others have mentioned is more likely to be one's relationship with God. He goes on to describe this relationship.

" We lowered our heads and lifted our face Placed our bodies in celebration " This seems like a somewhat abstract, if you will, description of prayer or worshipping. As I recall one would lower their heads to pray and sometimes lift their face (or gaze) as they are praying intensely for something. Placing our bodies in celebration makes me think more of a religious ceremony or at least where one would kneel down to pray. Trying to show that the worshiper is humble to an extent.

"On the lips of a mutilated man" One of the worshipers is whispering or mouthing (hence on the lips) prayers. The worshiper(s) is the mutilated man of which he sings. Mutilated perhaps by another man's or their own cruelty, wikedness, hate, or despair. Mutilated more in the emotional sense than in the phisical sense. Damaged and tortured mentally rather than physically.

"I carry the bones of a deformed child" Note that it is spoken in a distinct and different voice than the previous lyrics. This indicates to me that it must be God or Jesus that are speaking. They cary the bones, the remains of a twisted, damaged, and cruel humanity; all of man-kind is a deformed child.

"And my own polluted breath I speak the old man's words " Back to the narrator or worshiper. He speaks God's words, but in a manner that is unclear and perhaps tarnished by his speaking them (hence poluted). " In a persuasive eloquence " Perhaps what he speaks are not really God's words but a lie, his interpretation and use of these words and God as he so desires. A priest that speaks the gospel but of course adds his own interpretation often for his own needs. The worshiper at least admits that his words are far from those of God and God's Truth, in a humbled way at first (poluted breath) and later in a sarcastic way (persuasive eloquence). He can convince people to follow him and his interpretation of God's Truth.

" Bless the dust that hides This unlamented head " Again with a bit of sarcasm he thanks what hides the Truth and prevents his lies from being seen as lies. As he used dust in the first line he defines what he means by dust and requests that we reinterpret the first verse of the song. "with dust in our lids", hence we could not see clearly the Truth, we could not have a close enough relationship with God. We can only have that which is open to interpretation and being tarnished. The dust prevents us from understanding God's plan and what he wants of us. The unlamented head speaks of God/Jesus. Unlamented because no one realizes that they are tarnishing His Truth and those that do might even be against lamenting the loss and misunderstanding God must feel.

"On the crest of fire, our wings are burning How glorious the pain " This makes me think far more of funeral pires and which burnings. Wherein the populace believes burning will clense the souls and remove the evil. The narator was likely well regarded until others turned against him and saw the lies he spoke. So now they burn him, as they believe he is the devil or his words are from the devil himself.

" And the ways of God, shriek out of tune " This is a statement that those who accused and endorsed which burnings were very wrong. They used the will and way of God to appease their own fear, interests, or needs. Hence the way that man-kind is going spiritually seems completely wrong and is still to this day not the way of God (but I might add perhaps a bit better than witch burnings).

" All is lost but hope " Hope that perhaps we will meet God in the afterlife and be able to understand God's Truth and message, rather than have it openly interpreted. Hope that perhaps humanity will learn from this and better themselves. Perhaps the ways of God will come back in tune.

"To the wind's anthem " The wind is chaotic but strong. So the are burning to a tune that is chaotic and unpredictable yet very powerful. One might even say that the wind is the anti-thesis to God's tune (above).

Overall it is the story of a religious figure who was burned, whether rightly or wrongly, for misrepresenting the Truth of God.

"All is lost but hope"