Burning of the Midnight Lamp

This is basically a Hendrix song about heartbreak, loneliness and isolation. Jimi was heavily influenced by the way Dylan wrote his lyrics in a poetic, picturesque style, rather than the textbook lyrics of the day. Here’s my interpretation:

“The morning’s dead and the day is too”

It’s no longer daylight but nighttime which he dreads

“There's nothing left here to meet me But the velvet moon”

Someone who meant something to him is no longer there. He feels the moon is his only companion now.

“All my loneliness I have felt today It's like a little more than enough To make a man throw himself away”

The feeling of isolation and more than likely heartbreak, has driven him into a lonely desperation. He feels the pain is so great, he could possibly end his life.

“And I continue To burn the midnight lamp Alone”

A play on the expression, burning the midnight oil, which is to work late into the night. Instead he burns the midnight lamp late into the night alone hoping the person who left with return to soothe his loneliness.

“Now the smiling portrait of you Is still hangin' on my frowning wall”

A picture of the one who has left, remains on his wall. The person is smiling, giving contrast to his own feelings of unhappiness, hence, frowning wall.

“It really doesn’t, really doesn’t bother me too much at all It's just the ever falling dust That makes it so hard for me to see That forgotten earring layin' on the floor Facing coldly towards the door”

Drugs “dust” have come in to play to take away his pain of rejection and loneliness. The drug has dull his emotional senses and he’s convinced himself, all what he’s feeling “doesn’t bother” him at the moment. But despair comes racing back when he see’s a remaining remnant, the earring, which was left behind during the person’s icy exit out the door.

“So here I sit to face That same old fire place Gettin' ready for the same old explosion Goin' through my mind”

He sits facing the fireplace where they
both use to sit, but now he sits alone. His begins replaying the events which bought him here, over and over, until he feels like his heads going to explode. This must be a nightly occurrence. “Same old explosions”

“And soon enough time will tell, About the circus in the wishing well”

He wished (wishing well) for fame and it was granted, but now he’s unsure if he wants the “circus” life which came with it.

“And someone who will buy and sell for me Someone to toll my bell”

Hopes soon this person who has departed and who was truly in his corner will return soon to make him whole once more.

Hendrix was no god, he was a human being and felt all the emotions We mirror mortals also feel.