Isabella Of Castile

a million people have said the same thing in more or less the same way and it never stops feeling good when someone says it again

exactly the way i feel with someone at the moment..i cant stop listening to this song but it breaks my heart all at the same time

"but I want to stay here with you, in this room, I can tell you'll never be all mine"

honest and poetic and pure.

This is the most depressing yet beautiful song.

I think this song has a similar meaning as the poem John Donne wrotte "Break of Day" in other words; two lovers that have to say good bie after a one night stand, and the speaker telling his lover to stand a little more, being selfish ("you'll never be all mine") because he just wants to have sex again. x)

This song is based on Queen Isabella of Castile. She was the queen of Spain after poisoning her brother and she was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon by convincing the pope to let them marry (they were cousins which is against the church) if she made Christianity the official religion in Spain. Ferdinand married her for strategic purposes because Isabella had a powerful military. This explains the first paragraph, Isabella knew she should go unite Spain but she loved Ferdinand and she knew he would never love her. When I first heard this song, I assumed it was all about Christopher Columbus though, which could definitely be another possibility. I think the part about philosophy could be about how she was thinking about the world differently, especially when Christopher Columbus came into the picture. Isabella gave Columbus what he needed to go to the "West Indies," after he flirted with her for eight years. She even called Columbus her boyfriend and he had a place to live in the castle. She was viewing things differently because she wasn't as lonely--she knew Ferdinand cheated on her and now she was cheating too. The next part about "I know you have to go" could once again be about Ferdinand or Columbus. If about Ferdinand, it would be about him leaving the castle to go about his duties (he wasn't often at the castle and he had other lovers.) She knew he was cheating on her, so she was certain that he'd never be all hers. (He never even wanted to marry her in the first place, but after what she did to her brother and the fact the pope said yes, he didn't have much of a choice.) OR this could be about Columbus leaving on his trip, she wanted him to be all hers (especially since he had a place to live in the palace!) The last part about thinking really shows the historical context of the song. Isabella meant the things she said, especially when she told her brother to give her the throne after her father died. He didn't listen, so she poisoned him. She doesn't mess around, basically. She was also a very strong leader of Spain and did end up uniting the country with Catholicism (this was not an easy thing to do.) The last part about thinking really shows the historical context of the song. Unlike other people, she was very precise in her thoughts and her expression of said thoughts. For example, she told her brother not to take the throne, he didn't listen, so she poisoned him. Isabella was also very smart, and her thoughts were very precise and planned. Basically, she wasn't someone you'd mess with. The last line about symbols being more concrete I think is her wishing her thoughts were as concrete, and people would understand that her thoughts were as concrete. When she asked Ferdinand to marry her and he found a way out of it (the cousin thing) she just went straight to the pope to get permission to marry. The power of the document she got from the pope made it so Ferdinand couldn't say no (he knew she'd kill him), and it seems like she's wishing that her thoughts would have that much power and be that "concrete."