(I Can't Seem To) Make You Mine

definitely one of the most heart-rendering songs i've ever heard. alasdair's vocals suit this song perfectly. i can vividly picture a nostalgic winter night with the love of your life (although she doesn't know it) that goes awry. the protagonist views himself as a "beast" (one that is constantly pondering love, love, love) which builds up an interesting parallel to the beauty & the beast like tale that we all fondly remember - except in this one, the two were never meant to be. it's about wanting someone with the very depth of your soul, although they could never possibly love you in the same way. it could also be about loving someone who changes so radically, and so quickly, while being involved with things and events so beyond your control that that you can never get them back. amazing song - transports me to a completely different time.

I was pretty sure this song was about someone who had died. It would be a ghost speaking. The use of the tremolo gives the song an eerie, almost macabre, tone. "In the silence of the garden" could refer to a graveyard. The "beast" often refers to death. "Till the rusty nails grow dim" could refer to a coffin and decay. "I can't seem to make you mine." He can't because he's dead. "But the crowd pulled you away" could refer to a crowd leaving a funeral but the loved one wants to linger and also the way friends try to influence people to move on with their lives after a loved one has died. "And the ivy coiled around my hand" could refer to ivy that often grows over graves and the roots working their way into a coffin and around a skeleton. The image of rain relates to sadness and tears. It's definitely a very sad song. It's also very beautiful sounding to me.

I think joosens has something there. I was picturing a statue being in love with a woman, but the ghost is better. And "rusty nail" is also the name of a flower. "Grow dim" could refer to flowers fading after a funeral.

how has nobody commented on this. anyways this song is so good

This song is pretty self-explanitory, I guess... about a struggle for someone, but it never quite works out and life always pulls the other person away. I love the line "but the night has brought the rain, and the rain has brought the night." This is such a lovely song.

again this song is so beautiful and poetic. heard it at the begining of the lake house movie. i think its about a one night stand for soem reason.

It's a gargoyle, something beastly at least. But, "I can't seem to make you mine" -- why pick those words, as what the beast would think? How would a gargoyle consider love, and how would that gargoyle bring about someone's love? They would have to transform them into stone, or at least something unmoving, permanent. "I can't make you" = you are what you are, and cannot be transformed into what I am. At this point, go one level deeper and the gargoyle isn't a statue at all. It's a person, a human being, who is rooted not in a permanent garden, but in their personality, or in their place, or in their condition. And they long for someone else who can't be transformed. The analogy remains. That's poetry.