12 Meanings
Add Yours
Share
Q&A

A Pitcher of Summer Lyrics

One morning, before the leaves began changing
I caught a piece of summer and poured it into a pitcher;

This I placed in the cellar on a shelf collecting dust .
Autumn, then winter, rose up from the sea, and my
Garden was a garden filled with unbroken snow.

No flower strained its face to the ice giants' whisper,
No life coloured the vision of a newborn Spring babe.
My cellar-water dripping into a pail

And I lifted my piece of summer
Like a piece of memory or a dream

Like these, caught on film
And carried it to the garden floes,
The wind turning drifting stars to madness.

Poured forth gracefully, this ctheric tincture
Lifts winter's coat-of-arms with coaxing aromas and electricity.
Used with vigilance, a Pitcher of Summer stirs a memory into swooning,
And bravely, the flowers of the past will stretch their limbs into the sky
While snow falls quietly all around.
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

12 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

Summer ends and his "garden" (his Self) is frozen and covered in snow. Bad times ensue and the garden is in a sad state and slowly dying, all the beauty and happiness as he sees it is gone. No flowers, no life, and no colour anywhere (a state of depression). He finds a piece of summer in his mind, the memories and feelings before everything was like this ("And I lifted my piece of summer Like a piece of memory or a dream ...Like these, caught on film"). He then uses these to break out of the state he's in and restore beauty and colour to his world; ("Used with vigilance, a Pitcher of Summer stirs a memory into swooning, And bravely, the flowers of the past will stretch their limbs into the sky While snow falls quietly all around.")

That's what this means to me

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

Oh, and I think the last line is very important, because it tells that he didn't magically make winter go away. The snow was still falling, but his "garden" flourished anyway; winter suddenly wasn't so bad anymore. It's about changing yourself to be happy with the circumstamces that you can't change, and once you've done that, you might discover that Winter is beautiful in its own way.

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

someone please say something, i am dying here. please explain this to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

someone please say something, i am dying here. please explain this to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

someone please say something, i am dying here. please explain this to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

someone please say something, i am dying here. please explain this to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

i don't understanddd

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

Really, I don't know if you really could say for sure what this song is about, but I take it as holding on to something that's inevitably going to die or end. Maybe a relationship. Hiding these turns the once beautiful pitcher into something else. It could also simply explain how someone could deal with an transition. I haven’t asked Toby about this particular song, so I’m not sure myself. This is just how I interpret it, and that’s what Toby wants you to do for yourself.

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

what does ctheric mean? this has been bothering me

Cover art for A Pitcher of Summer lyrics by Kayo Dot

I don't understand how some people can hear such a beautiful work of art then demand to know plainly what it means. Anyways, these lyrics evoke incredible imagery. Don't try to belittle the meaning by focusing on what it means to you, but instead what it MEANS.