This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Please, curtains in, start us off
You swing first, sorry
I don't know what I said
But you're crying now again
And that only makes it worse
Let me do my job
Let me do my job
Sylvia, get your head out of the oven
Go back to screaming and cursing
Remind me again how everyone betrayed you
Sylvia, get your head out of the covers
Let me take your temperature
You can throw the thermometer right back at me
If that's what you want to do, okay?
Please, please calm down
Steady out, I'm terrified
Sorry, I want us to ally
But you swing on little knives
They're only sharp on one side
Let me do my job
Let me do my job
Sylvia, get your head out of the oven
Go back to screaming and cursing
Remind me again how everyone betrayed you
Sylvia, get your head out of the covers
Let me take your temperature
You can throw the thermometer right back at me
If that's what you want to do, okay?
Sylvia, can't you see what you are doing?
Can't you see I'm scared to speak
And I hate my voice because it only makes you angry
Sylvia, I only talk when you are sleeping
That's when I tell you everything
And I imagine that somehow you're going to hear me
You swing first, sorry
I don't know what I said
But you're crying now again
And that only makes it worse
Let me do my job
Let me do my job
Sylvia, get your head out of the oven
Go back to screaming and cursing
Remind me again how everyone betrayed you
Sylvia, get your head out of the covers
Let me take your temperature
You can throw the thermometer right back at me
If that's what you want to do, okay?
Please, please calm down
Steady out, I'm terrified
Sorry, I want us to ally
But you swing on little knives
They're only sharp on one side
Let me do my job
Let me do my job
Sylvia, get your head out of the oven
Go back to screaming and cursing
Remind me again how everyone betrayed you
Sylvia, get your head out of the covers
Let me take your temperature
You can throw the thermometer right back at me
If that's what you want to do, okay?
Sylvia, can't you see what you are doing?
Can't you see I'm scared to speak
And I hate my voice because it only makes you angry
Sylvia, I only talk when you are sleeping
That's when I tell you everything
And I imagine that somehow you're going to hear me
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I was driving with my mom in the car and this song came on and brought her to tears. My older sister, Silvia, had brain cancer and she didn't want any treatment even though my parents pleaded with her. From what I always hear of her she always use to say she knew where she was going and she was alright with that. If told once again to fight, she would refuse to see anyone. She was eight years old and I was month old when she passed away.
Anyways, I just recently stumbled upon this CD. I'm very glad I did. It helps to understand what people go through.
This song is literally about Sylvia Plath the poet, who tried to commit suicide many times, once, by taking sleeping pills and putting her head in an oven
Sylvia stands as a metaphor for how the main girl, who has cancer feels.
How do you know all this music trivia. I am always amazed at what some know about certain topics. I know all about nothing. Life is not fair. As for Sylvia, the oven doesn't sound like a good place to be, unless it's electric;) (NOT laughing at depression as I have suffered from it myself, but sometimes a mood needs to be lightened for the good of the people)
Also enjoy the idea of an oven as a place to build up anger. How it's both unforgivingly, seethingly hot and completely enclosed, with no option of release.
SYYYYYYYLLLLLVIIIIAAAAAAA
GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE OOOVEEEEEEEEEN
Such a powerful song. I definitely agree with lexington on the Plath allusion. I just think this song is about not being able to give someone the help they need, and the frustrations that come with helping someone who isn't able to understand that they need it ( "I only talk to when you are sleeping, that's when I tell you everything")
Sylvia Plath killed herself by putting her head in the oven, so they probably allude to that. I think (generally)the song is about an angry, verbally abusive partner who wont accept the others help even when she is ill (the thermometer reference adding to the "hospital" theme of the album). But the other partner still cares for them even though they cannot say it when they're awake.
the whole album is based on the horrifying experience of losing someone against cancer
According to an interview with Silberman (the songwriter) in The Guardian he's never read The Belljar, and while he was kind of thinking of Plath, the Sylvia the song refers to is from Leonard Michael's novel 'Sylvia'.
Full article here: guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/13/antlers-concept-album
Sylvia, can't you see what you are doing? Can't you see I'm scared to speak And I hate my voice because it only makes you angry
Sylvia, I only talk when you are sleeping That's when I tell you everything And I imagine that somehow you're going to hear me
o god Peter, spot on.
This album being about the pains of an emotionally abusive relationship, this is the part where he is able to see all the wrongs and issues he and her have, but when he tries to work it out and talk things over, she just resists and throws everything back at him with a volatile attitude. He only wants to take care of her and love her, but she just won't let him.