Bones

I always think of suicide when I hear this song. It speaks to me about respecting the dead who have died by their own hand.

'Dig up her bones, but leave her soul alone' 'Let her find her way, to a better place' Often times with suicide people will kind of, not let the dead rest by always talking about them. They 'dig up the bones' by always bringing up the subject of the suicide. 'Leave her soul alone' refers to people who talk about the soul of the dead, who act as though since they can no longer speak for themselves, they have the right to pass judgement. They damn them in church (people who commit suicide are usually not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground, it is thought of as a sin to take one's own life) etc, and that lyric speaks to that.

You could also tie that in to the 'empty churches and soulless curses' lyric-no one knows the exact reason why someone chooses to kill themself-no one can know, and the reasons are varied.

'Let her find her way back home'-This is essentially saying to the survivors to let the person find some peace in the afterlife, in her eternal rest. Don't talk about her or keep bringing up the subject of her death. Let her find the peace that alluded her in life.

Broken dreams and silent screams'-Could refer to the suicidal persons unhappiness about their life turning out the way that it is going, and the silent screams-the things no one hears or sees. This person is suffering, but they won't talk about it to anyone else.

'Kissing death and losing my breath' could refer to a person trying to commit suicide for the first time and being stunned that it's possible and to come close, it shocks them enough so that they 'lose their breath'. The best analogy I can think of is in Inception when they tip the sleeping Cob over into the bathtub. It wakes him up, it shocks him. So the same would happen for a person who might be attempting suicide for the first time.

'Midnight hours, cobblestone passages, forgotten savages'-this could refer to someone who has been previously depressed having a problem sleeping, or sleeping and experiencing nightmares. The forgotten savages could be remnants of nightmares, or of insomnia. The cobblestone passages also ties in well with the insomnia theory.

'Lost in the pages of self made cages, life slips away and the ghost comes to play'-When you're suicidal, you can't get out of your own head. Your own mind becomes a trap. This is pretty self explanatory.

I love the 'these are hard times for dreamers' bit.

'Marinate in misery, like a girl of only seventeen. Man made madness, and the romance of sadness. Beautiful dance that happened by chance'-These are the saddest lines in the entire song. But so beautiful because they express something that a terribly depressed or suicidal person might feel-and if you've ever been suicidal or severely depressed you'll know what this means. You 'marinate' in your own unhappiness, you can't shake it no matter what you do. Things that society has created baffle you, you see no use for them. The only thing that makes any sense any more is the dark, the sadness and how it embraces you and lulls you into thinking that you're safe. There is a deep, strange kind of beauty in perpetual sadness, which I think is something that only a badly depressed person can understand.

And the beautiful dance that happened by chance? This is my favorite line. You're so depressed that just living and walking is a challenge, when into your life someone comes for just a minute-they're like a candle flame-they flicker a few times and then they dissapear. That is the beautiful dance that happens by chance. You come across someone who completely understands every single thing you're going through. They see through your soul and past your sadness-but something keeps you from being with that person or the circumstances just don't allow it. It's a completely chance encounter, and it will never happen again. It is the final insult in a dark world. It is a tiny flicker of hope, but it's just not enough. Your mind is already made up.

This was really long, but I hope that it helped at least a few people.

What Lizzy said in a YT interview (/watch?v=6mAG1w6Vvms)

"'Bones' is a very, sort of dear track, because it's a nod to a very specific night in my life. I was 18, I was about to graduate high school and move to the States for the first time and enter a university and sort of angsty time. I was in a bit of termoil about that sort of change and I didn't feel right for it and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the pieces that were coming into play to sort of make that next step, and in a bit of a half while studying for exams I think had the next day... I sort of run away from home for the evening and met up with a friend of mine and we ended up getting high behind the Royal Albert Hall and climbing the sculptures, walking through graveyards, we broke in a church and we found ourselves at some person's party that we just walked into, and it was the most bizarre night of my life, potentially. We were out all evening, it got to the point where we were out at 5 in the morning, our parents called the cops on us... and it was this great night because I think me and the person I was with, we were so overwhelmed by everything else that was happening in our lives and that was such a free night where we could just be, I don't know, just escape a little bit and be as free as we wanted to."