The only girl I've ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes
But then they buried her alive
One evening in 1945
With just her sister at her side
And only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone
Now she's a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
On empty rings around the sun
I'll sing to say my dream has come

But now we must pack up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on

And now we ride the circus wheel
With your dark brother wrapped in white
Says it was good to be alive
But now he rides a comet's flame
And won't be coming back again
The Earth looks better from a star
That's right above from where you are
He didn't mean to make you cry
With sparks that ring and bullets fly
On empty rings around your heart
The world just screams and falls apart

But now we must pack up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on

And here's where your mother sleeps
And here is the room where your brothers were born
Indentations in the sheets
Where their bodies once moved but don't move anymore
And it's so sad to see the world agree
That they'd rather see their faces filled with flies
All when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes


Lyrics submitted by PLANES

Holland, 1945 Lyrics as written by Jeffery Nye Mangum

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Holland, 1945 song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    The song is not about Frank exactly. It's about the relevance of Frank in cultural history. The song is a comment on the place Frank holds in our shared cultural consciousness. As we strive to understand the holocaust, we turn to the words of this young girl. The girl is able to explain it better than anyone else because she speaks with clarity and honesty, and she speaks with an authenticity that is emotional and which touches anyone. Consequently, our collective understanding of the holocaust is shaped by the girl's diary. In this sense she is buried alive. She exists forever for what she was.

    That the song is the emotional pinnacle of the album is no mistake. The song is performed loud and fast because it is ultimately a song about life. What makes the diary universally affecting is its inherent vitality. It is a book about living. Living in the face of terror, but living. It is a book that celebrates an unflinching belief in an endless human capacity. For a girl to say in the face of the Nazis that people could be basically good is a willful declaration for humanity. Thus, we confront the question of how we can go on after the holocaust. This song finds the answer in our understanding of Anne Frank. That in reading her words we can hope for humanity. That kind of hope has to be sincere and virulent. That the song is loud and fast is testament to the fact of life in the wake of unspeakable horror, of the need to hope when we find it all but impossible.

    vbveceraon July 08, 2007   Link

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