In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Margaret, array the rocks around the hull before we're sinking,
A million stones, a million bones, a million holes within the chinking.
And painting rings around your eyes, these peppered holes so filled with crying.
A whisper weight upon the tattered down where you and I were lying.
Tell me now, tell me this, a forest's son, a river's daughter?
A willow on the willow wisp, our ghost will wander all of the water.
So let's be married here today, these rushing waves to bear our witness,
And we will lie like river stones, rolling only where it takes us.
[Chorus]
But I pulled you and I called you here,
And I caught you and I brought you here
These hazards of love, never more will trouble us.
Margaret, the lapping waves are licking quietly at our ankles
Another bow, another breath, this brilliant chill has come for the shackle.
With this long last rush of air we speak our vows in starry whisper,
And when the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes and softly kissed her.
But I pulled you and I called you here,
And I caught you and I brought you here
These hazards of love, never more will trouble us.
And these hazards of love, never more will trouble us.
A million stones, a million bones, a million holes within the chinking.
And painting rings around your eyes, these peppered holes so filled with crying.
A whisper weight upon the tattered down where you and I were lying.
Tell me now, tell me this, a forest's son, a river's daughter?
A willow on the willow wisp, our ghost will wander all of the water.
So let's be married here today, these rushing waves to bear our witness,
And we will lie like river stones, rolling only where it takes us.
[Chorus]
But I pulled you and I called you here,
And I caught you and I brought you here
These hazards of love, never more will trouble us.
Margaret, the lapping waves are licking quietly at our ankles
Another bow, another breath, this brilliant chill has come for the shackle.
With this long last rush of air we speak our vows in starry whisper,
And when the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes and softly kissed her.
But I pulled you and I called you here,
And I caught you and I brought you here
These hazards of love, never more will trouble us.
And these hazards of love, never more will trouble us.
Lyrics submitted by MarcelLionheart, edited by Hrimrisar
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So, here's my interpretation of the song:
During Annan Water, William makes a deal with the river to allow him to pass just once so that he can be with his love one final night. He knows he's already made a deal with his mother that he could only have the one night before she reclaimed him (a la Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid "And if I grant you this favor, to hand you your life for the evening I will retake by morning"), so rather than be ripped from his true love once more, he chooses to be swallowed in the Annan waters.
Meanwhile, as he's crossing the river, The Rake is haunted (or driven mad if you like) by the ghosts of his murdered children. They drive him out (as I'd like to imagine, before he rapes Margaret) freeing William to rescue his true love. She agrees to follow William to their death in the Annan rather than be torn apart again, so one final time he heaves the makeshift raft into the water to carry them off.
As they drift the river begins to claim its prize, and William asks Margaret to marry him before they're taken. The chorus, where they sing "But I pulled you and I called you here (Didn't I? Didn't ? Didn't I?)" is sung by both Margaret and William, because in a way both have rescued the other. Margaret first helps William who was wounded while in the form of a faun, and later calls him to her during Margaret in Captivity. She also in a greater sense frees him from his mother, who wouldn't allow him to leave the Taiga. William frees Margaret from the Rake, and calls her to him in Won't Want for Love.
“And these hazards of love never more will trouble us”. Margaret and William now in death are free.
I'm sorry. William is not the Rake. The Queen's Rebuke backs this up. By saying the Rake has removed the temptation from her innocent child and by helping the Rake cross the river. If the Rake is William, why the hell does William need help crossing to save Margaret?
And there's defiantly a boat. And I'm still pretty sure it's "around the hull". I don't care what the book/website says. Booklets are wrong all the time.
It's a bit tougher to figure out the context of this track, but my take is that after The Rake is haunted/killed by his children, Margaret and William escape back to the river. They try to cross, but the Annan Water sinks their boat. It could be that they were truly trying to return to the Taiga, but I like to think that since William made the deal with Annan Water to let him cross but not return, Margaret agreed to perish with him in the river. She would rather be with him in death than let him be taken by the Queen of the Taiga.
i was thinking exactly the same thing. william's "deal" with the river in "annan water" was that as long as he was able to cross and be with margaret, then the river could take him on the way back. the way i see it, they can consider it a death if the make it back to the taiga anyway, because in "the wanting comes in waves" the queen permits william his one night, but says that in the morning, she will take him back (away from margaret) and that will be him repaying his debt to her for saving him and keeping him safe for his whole life. they would rather die together than live without each other.<br /> <br /> this is one of the most beautiful sad songs.
right on. all though I think that what occurs in Hazards 3 and Wanting (Reprise) is actually William coming onto the scene, killing the Rake, and freeing Margaret.<br /> <br /> It's actually a rather graceful, subtle turn that Meloy chooses to omit what might otherwise have been the climax. This is a story about love, not revenge. What of the Rake's back story then? He exists as a foil to William, the original anti-hero shape-changing seducer. <br /> <br /> The baby is still in the womb as of their death. It either 1) dies, perhaps becoming a ghost a la Leslie Anne Levine off Castaways 2) miraculously surfaces by the water and lives, as in The Island off The Crane Wife or 3) is rescued, as William himself was by the Queen (very similar situation) -- and thus restarting the cycle of the album's story. <br /> <br /> With either/all these answers, Meloy has accumulated a whole little universe of myth around his body of work.
i never thought of those connections to the other albums. i like the restarting of the cycle idea because i listen to the album on repeat so i like the possibility of that.<br /> <br /> and i could totally agree with william killing the rake and freeing margaret thing now that you say it and i look back on it.
I like Arrian's idea that Margaret and William's baby is rescued by the Queen and the cycle resarts again. I would like to point out that the album seems, as a whole, to be going for a whole universal feel. As in, everyone who falls in love faces certain Hazards that try to keep them apart, but the message is, that if true love exists, the two will be together regardless, and the generalization of "hazards" implies that the cycle will continue until the end of time. So I think the baby was somehow rescued by the Queen to begin the cycle again. Just listen to the album again and the story begins again.<br /> I also heard somewhere that this album came from Meloy's wanting to write a musical but his agents or someone told him it was a bad idea, so he wrote this album as, quite literally, a musical without visuals. That being said, some thing may have been left out of the story, such as their baby being rescued at the end. I know I'm kind of rambling but...
Hmmm... I'm not sure, but I thought maybe when he tells Annan Water he can have his bones on his return - he didn't really take it seriously. I thought of it as sort of a hyperbole. He was so dying to get to Margaret he just sort of thought it didn't matter what happened to him after. But it turned out he could take Margaret back with him, so they went to cross the river and the river held him to his "promise." He realizes this is happening, and he and Margaret reconcile themselves with the idea of dying because at least they'll die together. And as far as the chorus, I think its worth noting that they BOTH sing it. I think, in the end, they both just think "It's all my fault. I'm so sorry for ruining your life. You'd probably have been better off without me, but I love you, etc..."
absolutely beautiful song. I'm debating between 2 and 4 for my favorite hazard.
'my favorite hazard', I love that...
I said this in a reply upthread, but it bears repeating:
I don't think there IS a boat. The hole (around which Margaret is arraying the rocks) is the grave of their stillborn child, who most likely died in utero, due to the punishment Margaret received at the hands of The Rake.
I think that William and Margaret have resigned themselves to the fact that they'll soon be giving themselves to the river, and this is their last act before entering its cold embrace.
"Tell me now, tell me this, a forest's son, a river's daughter?" = William asking the Margaret the sex of their child.
Probably one of the most touching songs I've heard in a good while. To me it shows their strife, all culminating in their dying vow. He's rescued her, risked everything to make it there, including agreeing to perish upon his return. He seems to blame himself for getting her killed as well.
Really a beautiful song.
"With this long last rush of air, we'll speak our vows of starry whisper And when the waves came crashing down, he closed his eyes and softly kissed her"
Those are my favorites lines from the song too. As well as...<br /> <br /> "So let's be married here today, these rushing waves, to bear our witness<br /> And we will lie like river stones, rolling only where it takes us"<br /> <br /> The song is so poignant.
I think william gets there too late and margaret is already dead. I think that The Wanting Comes in Waves song right after the revenge song can tell a lot about this one. It's William's light motif, so it's clearly about him at that moment. He says "here comes the waves" and I think this is literal, that he is jumping in to cross the river. The music is heroic, like he's rushing toward her, and then suddenly turns ominous, like horror. At that moment He sees he is too late.
"A million stones, a million bones, a million holes within the chinking" Her bones are broken in a million pieces
"And painting rings around your eyes, these peppered holes too filled with crying" She has black eyes from being beaten, and cuts on her face, possibly even lost her eyes
"A whispered weight upon the tattered down where you and I were lying" She's now just an empty body "a whispered weight"
So he sees she is dead, or possibly near death and decides to walk into the river with her so they can be married in death.
On a side note, I think it's so cool that they make a few musical allusions to Pink Floyd's The Wall. The unintelligible screaming between A Bower Scene and Won't Want for Love sounds just like the transition between two of the songs in The Wall, and later between the Revenge Song and the Wanting Comes in Waves there is a bit of organ music that sounds like the transitions Pink Floyd uses.
Also doesn't work because both sing the end of the song indicating that Margaret is still alive. Also there is indication that they are on a ship being washed away together in the Annan Water throughout the song.
dead people sing all the time in Decemberists songs - the mariner's revenge song and eli the barrow boy on picaresque and the kids in the Hazards of love revenge song. I'm not entirely convinced they are on a boat, but even if they are, it can still be a kind of suicide pact - she is going to die or is dead and he wants to die with her. Kind of like in the "We both go down together" on picaresque. After all, he knows the river will take him if he crosses, why bother crossing then? Why not go live somewhere else.
This song is breathtaking. I agree with the above interpretation, but I am confused on a couple points -- first of all, who does the chorus come from? Maragaret, William, or both of them? I assume the latter, because she comes in at that point in the song, but does anybody else see it another way?
Second, can anybody see a particular reason he switches to third person for the last line of the fourth verse? I noticed that he makes a similar change in The Abduction of Maragaret.
In this case at least, it might be that since the original narrator is dying, he's lost some degree of consciousness and a new narrator needs to take over.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, its the last line of the song (except for the repeated chorus). It's the very end of the story.
Colin sings both William and the narrator, so it could be that he's singing as the narrator in that last line.
The liner notes list William and Margaret, but not either of the narrators (first/second voice).
I dunno...I was of the impression that during "Revenge!", the Rake's children that he killed came back to haunt him, and at the same time all the evil deeds had caused him to snap, so he took Margaret back to the Annan and drowned her during "The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)". As William is crossing the Annan, he sees the Rake drowning Margaret, so trying to defend his love, he attacks the Rake, but he is too late, and the Rake gets away. William he swears his love to Margaret, and kills himself so he won't have to be with her.
I also for some reason believe that when it is the "narrator" singing, it is actually the Rake, as some sort of suicide-note thing. He, like William, had "fallen in love" with Margaret (really more of an obsession with her), and when he learns of her tryst with William, he strikes up a deal with the Queen to take Margaret away, so her "innocent child" will be protected from the hazards of love, and also so he can be with his "true love" (a win-win situation).
That would kind of explain why it opens with "MY true love..." but then seems to switch to the third person. It's almost as if the Rake is a stalker-ish type, and after he had first seen Margaret (well before the events in the story), he had "fallen in love" with her (become obsessed; she was beautiful so he must have her). He'd followed her around, and saw that she had fallen in love with (and been impregnated by) the forest prince, William. (And kids aren't the Rake's strong suit, which may/may not add to anything.)
Then the last line of "The Drowned" is sung by the Rake (who may/may not also sing the "I pulled/called/caught/brought you here" line, though it makes sense for William to sing this as well), before an echo of the chorus, sung by William (seems to be the general consensus), is heard. I think that after the Rake got away, he returned, and watched William with Margaret's body from afar, and, realizing that theirs was really true love, a big difference from his obsession, that he had been wrong all along. So perhaps he returns to his fortress, writes down the story, and kills himself?
A lot of what I've just written isn't explicitly referred to in the album, but that's how the story has unfolded in my head since the first time I listened to it.
by "isn't explicitly referred to" do you mean not implied in the least bit.<br /> <br /> Why would Colin write a love story album with the narration of the most detestable character he's yet created. Nothing in the entire hour of music offers any inkling of the rake showing any feelings for Margaret besides sadistic lust. <br /> <br /> The rake is left out of the first half of the album because that whole first part is about love. the second half is all about the abduction/rescue of margaret finishing with william marrying margaret as they allow themselves to drown in annan waters to prevent ever being separated again, since he's promised his life to the queen after this night
Good point. After having read the official liner notes, I realized I must've been on something either when I listened to the album or when writing that post.
I hope their child survived. If there was a slight reference in a song later on, about an orphan who's parents were drowned by a river...
whose*
Oh there will be.
Guys, the child dies at the beggining of the song:<br /> <br /> "Margaret, array the rocks around the hole before we're sinking<br /> Margarat hurry and cover the grave we need to rush over the waters<br /> <br /> And painting rings around your eyes, these peppered holes too filled with crying<br /> her eyes are so red and swollen from crying that they are bloodshot ( peppered) <br /> <br /> <br /> Tell me now, tell me this, a forest's son, a river's daughter<br /> Tell me was it a boy or was it a girl?<br /> A willow on the will-o'-wisp, our ghost to wander all of the water<br /> Our baby who dies before growing, Our ghost who will wander the waters... <br /> so sad, I know ... <br /> <br />