Turn and Turn Again

I'm also a little disappointed in the lack of response to this song because it is pretty fantastic. That said, I think my response is probably going to be a bit further out there than most people go (I'm a communication major with a minor in English, but I spent time studying British literature in London in 2011, and there are striking points in this song that I think many people don't notice, and it makes my tongue itch not to point them out, so bear with me... :D).

I'm also a little disappointed in the lack of response to this song because it is pretty fantastic. That said, I think my response is probably going to be a bit further out there than most people go (I'm a communication major with a minor in English, but I spent time studying British literature in London in 2011, and there are striking points in this song that I think many people don't notice, and it makes my tongue itch not to point them out, so bear with me... :D).

This song actually makes several nicely veiled references to Shakespeare's play "Twelfth...

This song actually makes several nicely veiled references to Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night." The plays name refers to a holiday (originally Catholic, the twelfth night after Christmas) that was also known as the Feast of Epiphany. People and situations were often misrepresented as opposites than what they actually were (think, women dressing as men, etc), but the title of the play isn't really the point as much as it's a light joke (meaning that on the twelfth night things are not as they seem, but on the day after, there is a return to normalcy; if you are familiar with the plot, you'll get the reference, but it doesn't matter in terms of the song, except that you get the reference to the idea of "opposites"). There are several instances in the play where characters manage to turn "love to pain" (Viola vs. Olivia, Olivia vs. Orsino, Malvolio vs. Olivia, Sebastian vs. Antonio, etc) and "Peace to War" (Malvolio vs. Pranksters, Antonio vs. Sebastian and Orsino, etc).

When the song makes the specific reference to "Only priests and clowns can save us now," they are talking about a specific character in the play named Feste. In the play, there are several "high born" characters who don't have any sense between them who manage to get themselves in ridiculous situations, and of all the characters in the play, there is one who has all the wisdom, and that is the "fool" named Feste. At one point in the play, he is required to play a practical joke on another character (Malvolio) where he must disguise himself as a priest to try to convince Malvolio that he's insane. Then he speak to Malvolio again as himself (a clown) to tell him that he's just himself. All the while the audience knows that Feste is the only character that understands the folly of the world.

Even looking at the first two verses and understanding the Viola and Sebastian are siblings who are shipwrecked and picked up separately, each believing the other to be dead provides and interesting angle. Sebastian is rescued by Antonio and grows closer to him by necessity (Antonio becomes his benefactor, and lover, depending on the interpretation), and Viola is rescued by another sea captain. The language of the play is written where instead of using the proper "you" when address him, Viola uses the familiar "thou," thereby breaking the rules and "reducing the space" between them, for reasons we can only really speculate about. She convinces him to hide her and disguise her as a eunuch, and she is reborn as a man and placed in Orsino's house a servant, thereby becoming a "new born" creature.

Of course the theme of travel and shipwrecks (hurricanes) were mentioned before, but all of those specific details aside, what both the play and the song do is make a comment about the human condition.

Despite the fact that we have this need and craving for each other, and for love and peace, we have these self-destructive tendencies. We "turn and turn again," and no matter how many times we get tired of it, we end up in the same cycle, because oh, how easy it is for us to forget.

The play, ultimately, is about love, but it is bittersweet. That it is fleeting at best, and we can only hope to hold it for a time. This song is about the same thing. "Because we've done it again, this trick we have, of turning love to pain, and peace to war..."