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Esme Lyrics

I can feel a difference
Today, a difference
All of us in our tents
Fearing god like a mistress

We lay on the rocks in the sun
Watching you and your mama row in
I sat up and blinked when you appeared
So pale you were nearly clear

Later I stumbled to my bed
All alone in the branches
I laid in the dark thinking about
All of my friends and their changes

And I do not know
If you know just what you have done
You are the sweetest one
I have ever laid my eyes upon

It's a beautiful town
With the rain coming down
Blackberry, rosemary
Jimmy-crack-corn

You've got the run of the place
Now that you're running around
And may kindness,
Kindness, kindness abound

In this hour of our lives
Hour of effortless plenty
How do we know which parts of our hearts want what
With such base generosity?

Taking so many photographs, so amazed!
We've never seen a baby so newlyborn
And when the bulbs do flash as bright as morning
The crowd keeps on gathering like an electric storm

The phantom of love moves among us at will
Each phantom-limb lost has got an angel
So confused like the wagging bobbed-tail of a bulldog
Kindness, kindness prevails

Kindness prevails!
Ties and rails, ties and rails fall into line bearing kindness
Where will you go, if not here?
What will you say when you write to us?

This is a world of terrible hardship everywhere
And I search for words to set you at ease
But there, in the looking-glass, a kite is soaring
Stilling my warring heart and my trembling knees

Clean as a breeze, bright as the day
All of the people gather to say
"Sweet Esme! Sweet Esme!"
Oh, oh, oh!

I believe love will always surround you
Brave as a bear with a heart rare and true
But if you are scared, if you are blue
I have prepared this small song for you:

Sweet Esme! Sweet Esme!
Oh, oh, oh!
21 Meanings

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Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

just heard this song for the first time. lovely song.

anybody have ideas as to its meaning? i assume esame is a name - what does it mean?

This is going out on a limb, but 'esame' also means (alternately)

"We Exist" "We Become" "We are"

But, most likely it's just a name.

She's Appalachian, so it could come from anywhere

Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

maybe it's we lay on our BACKS in the sun ? that might make a bit more sense... i dont know

Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

This song makes me so happy that I want to cry. I remember reading that this song is about Joanna's young neice... at least at the time it was first written/performed she was young. The careful warmth and optimism of this lullaby is ethereal. If Have One on Me was only thing song, I would have been satisfied.

My Opinion
Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

esame means examination in italian.

im not sure if that's where she drew the name from. either way the song is beautiful

Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

God, this is so beautiful. I can't wait until she releases a new album.

Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

Esame is a misspelling. It should be Esme, which is a shortening of the name Esmeralda.

Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

Unfathomably beautiful.

Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

I don't care if it's called Esme, Esame, Johnny or Frank. I just love it.

Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

I really like this song. I wonder what it's going to be called in the end. She's said before that this is not the title of the song.

I really hope her new album comes out in September like rumored.

Cover art for Esme lyrics by Joanna Newsom

I think this song is about the birth of the child, and Joanna's grievance at the change she has brought. There are themes of reluctant love, but a love that grows. I think it definitely has undertones of lonliness, and bereavement of the changes Esme has brought, yet her softening and the eventual feelings of unconditional love she feels, as exemplified by the lines "the phantom of love...etc."

I may be completely off the mark, but anyways, that's what I've come to think.

Sounds good to me. Very poetic song. I do better with literal songs due to my inability to comprehend deep, profound meanings, so it's nice to have a song explained so eloquently. Thank you.

 
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