Heron Blue

Since I am uncertain whether or not I will get around the copyright, I figured I'd post my revised version of the lyrics here:

Don't cry, my love—don't cry no more. A crashing sky; a rolling screen; A city drowning; God's black tears— I cannot bear to see.

She lay under the midnight moon, Her restless body stirring, Until the magic morning hour: Like poison, it succumbs her.

Her baby skin; her old black dress. Her hair—it twists round her necklace; Constricts and chokes like ruthless vines. To sleep, she overtakes her.

Her room is painted heron blue, Lit by candlelight and chandelier, And from her headboard, perched so high, A million dreams have passed her.

Don't cry, my love—don't cry no more. It overwhelms my breaking heart. A minor swell of violins— I cannot bear to hear them.

A mother shepherds her young birds: She fills their mouths and warms their souls 'Til they are strong and good to fly. Away from her,—alone—she'll die.

Cradle on quiet, old oak limbs As, heaven blue, her light fails. A breath of soot into her lungs; A life, a journey's end in one.

Don't sing that old, sad hymn no more. It resonates inside my soul. It haunts me in my waking dream. I cannot bear to hear it.

Don't play those violins no more. Their melancholic overtones— They echo off the floor and walls. I cannot bear to hear them.

There are complexities that the above lyrics fail to clarify, such as the dual personality of the speaker (seen in, "To sleep, she overtakes her," "she" and "her" being two different characters). If anyone has any other edits they'd like to make, please feel free to post below.

This song is about death.

The music is also very creepy, in a beautiful way.

I think this is specifically describing the event that's more emotionally described in Harper Road (I love how the songs on this album are connected!). This is right before her death, as whatever the disease is, "like poison it succumbs her." All of the constricting, killing images in this are connected with that feeling of unpreventable loss. And then, when it finally does happen, it haunts him and the sadness sets in. God this is a sad song. I like Harper Road's version of the event a little better, but this is more real and from a different perspective.

I think the drum that kicks in after the first accoustic interlude really makes this song and adds so much to its depth and morose imagery.

Maybe not my favorite SKM song, but definitely Top 3. So haunting... The meaning is obvious, I think: it's a story about watching a heroin addict slowly die. The title, "soot into her lungs" (I guess she was smoking it, or maybe "lungs" is just a metaphor), "like poison, it succumbs her", and all of the obvious death references. The arrangement is just so beautiful: the way the distant bass drum comes in toward the end, then the light backing vocals.

Deeply touching.

I get the vibe of the womens death.

After that it's how he's tired of the sadness, "I cannot bear to hear it/them" it's that sadness that gets to him and haunts him.

That's just why i picked up at listening to it.

i like what i have read thus far, and i think that this may be talking about nature (?) we see that it is talking about a woman, mother nature. and then i read that someone mentioned war. Then i thought that he/she held a good point, that war does kill people but if it does not kill humans in time it will kill the planet. I think this song is about the end of Nature as a whole, and then the end of everything else on the Earth. This means that the constricting and choking could be the stealing of resources, resulting in the depletion of the inside of the Earth (natural resources being used up). The crying relates to rain, as they are tears of nature. The stopping of the tears meaning that there will be no reason to cry. During the destruction of nature there will be death, war, loss, and nothing more. In a world so strongly consumed by an individual's own "dog eat dog" ways or even in the simplest discriminative ways, it is likely that humans will go to war for what are easily insignificant reasons. (we don't all look a people and see humans but some of us see, Pakistanis, blacks, Asians, whites. all of that is truly insignificant... an easy concept that is viewed as a hard concept. Humans are nothing more than humans, and that is how it is for everyone.) Thus, this song may be about an overindulgent race destroying everything in their path to create what they want and not what they need. This is the ultimate destruction, going beyond self-destruction but also global destruction)

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So, I think the whole song could be about a mother in a coma, but from her daughter's husband's point of view. "Don't cry, my love." Even though he knows he can't do anything, he tries to reassure his wife that her mama's going to pull through. The verses that start with "Don't cry, my love." could even be from the mother's point of view. "I cannot bear to hear it." She can't NOT hear it, because she's trapped inside of herself. I know it's a little out there, but it could always be a possibility.