Polly wants a cracker
I think I should get off her first
I think she wants some water
To put out the blow torch
It isn't me
We have some seed
Let me clip
Your dirty wings
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
I've got some rope
You have been told
I promise you
I have been true
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
Polly wants a cracker
Maybe she would like some food
She asks me to untie her
A chase would be nice for a few
It isn't me
We have some seed
Let me clip
Your dirty wings
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
I've got some rope
You have been told
I promise you
I have been true
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
Polly said
Polly says her back hurts
And she's just as bored as me
She caught me off my guard
It amazes me, the will of instinct
It isn't me
We have some seed
Let me clip
Your dirty wings
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
I've got some rope
You have been told
I promise you
I have been true
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
I think I should get off her first
I think she wants some water
To put out the blow torch
It isn't me
We have some seed
Let me clip
Your dirty wings
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
I've got some rope
You have been told
I promise you
I have been true
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
Polly wants a cracker
Maybe she would like some food
She asks me to untie her
A chase would be nice for a few
It isn't me
We have some seed
Let me clip
Your dirty wings
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
I've got some rope
You have been told
I promise you
I have been true
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
Polly said
Polly says her back hurts
And she's just as bored as me
She caught me off my guard
It amazes me, the will of instinct
It isn't me
We have some seed
Let me clip
Your dirty wings
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
I've got some rope
You have been told
I promise you
I have been true
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
Lyrics submitted by bonj, edited by manic4manics, TomTom20
"Polly" as written by Kurt Cobain
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
Thanks!
Polly is a typical name for a parrot which is a bird. It alludes to the "I know why the cage bird sings" in which Maya Angelo is raped and molested/raped as a child. As the song "rape me" is the view of her being raped by Gerald Friend she had to pretend that she liked being raped in order to escape. To connect it to "Rape me" which is in the point of view from her instead of the rapist in this situation. "I am not the only one." She was not the only one that Friend raped he escaped many times and was released from prison then went back and raped a girl who got away. Sad very sad.
Often people train their parrots Polly wants a cracker and other things. Often when people are raped or molested especially throughout their life they are trained to just do what the rapist/molester wants ands sometimes they get a reward. Ie you might get a new handbag if you just first let the rapist/molester do something to you.. Like to say "Polly wants a cracker" before someone gives the bird a cracker or whatever is needed. youtube.com/… Or to him her cries or screams at first just sound like polly wants a cracker, polly wants a cracker. But it is not what she wants it is what he wants. Also the rapist is turning the girl into a bird instead of a human. He does not even see her as a person especially one that has needs.
Poily wants a cracker but I got to get off her first
Well lots of meanings when you know she is being raped. Either he gets off because she is hurt/upset or I could get her a cracker for my little birdie (the girl he is raping) but I would have to get off of her first/ie stop raping her and maybe that is not something that he is ready to do..
He knows that she wants some water to maybe defuse his power/libido so that eventually he will stop. Or she hopes that eventually he will come so that he can stop raping her.
Blow torch could be to mean the actual blow torch that was used against her or could be a sexual reference or phallic reference thus when he says I have some seeds it could be food, drugs (pot etc) or it could be semen. Just the idea that he is defiling her. Clipping her wings. Wings could be reference her hands being attached to a pulley rope as she was unable to use them. But also people clip chicken wings or other caged birds so that they cannot escape. He does not want to let her escape. He is trying his best to not let her go.
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
I've got some rope
You have been told
I promise you
I have been true
Let me take a ride
Don't cut yourself
I want some help
To please myself
Basically come one let me defile you, to get me off, do not fight it just let me do it. I want to tie you up with rope and do not fight or you will get cuts on your arms/wrists so do not fight. Just let me do it to get myself off. Also let me take a ride could be the connection that she hitch hiked and he gave her a ride in his car.
Polly wants a cracker
Maybe she would like some food
She asks me to untie her
A chase would be nice for a few
The girl in real life acted like she liked it and when he trusted her she asked him to untie her. He liked the idea of chasing her.
Polly says her back hurts
And she's just as bored as me
She caught me off my guard
It amazes me, the will of instinct
The girl goes by instinct and says things that might save her. She says her back hurts and that she liked it but this is getting boring. She lured him by saying lets do something new. So he is caught off guard then she runs away and frees herself. In real life she runs off after he unties her at a gas station and gets help.
Very sad song! Glad this is not on the nirvana Rockabye baby album they have!
the objective is to look DEEPER than the actual words :L
When some guys afterwards raped a girl, playing this song to it, Kurt got really angry that they misinterpreted it wrong, and that those were the kinds of fans he had, so he wrote in some Cd cover "to anyone that hates women, blacks, gays and so on, leave us the fuck alone" I'm not sure on how it exactly goes ..... that's just what i read somewhere, who knows, it could always be a lie??
I think it's a really psychologically brilliant song, which gets into a situation of rape and abuse, into relation between rapist and victim and rapist's bored, dull interior, full of contempt to a human.
Curt IS an overwhelming man.
Take care Nirvana funs, as we do here in Novosibirsk, Russia!
According to Michael Azerrad's 1993 Nirvana biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, "Polly" is based on the true story of a female rape victim from Tacoma, Washington
That was in 1987 and Polly was written around '87 or '88. It makes sense, isnt it?
I also found this somewhere on the web
---------
GUILTY VERDICT IN RAPE CASE
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
August 19, 1987
Author: The Associated Press
Estimated printed pages: 1
Gerald Arthur Friend was convicted yesterday in Pierce County Superior Court of the kidnapping and torture-rape of a 14-year-old girl.
Prosecutor Tom Stratton said he would recommend an exceptionally long sentence for Friend, 49 (age), who was convicted in a similar attack 27 years ago. In the latest case, Friend was charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree rape in the attack that occurred over several hours late June 5 and early June 6.
Officials said the victim was a runaway who accepted a ride from Friend near the Tacoma Dome after she attended a rock concert in the area. When the girl tried to get out of the car, authorities said, she was handcuffed and abducted at knife-point to Friend's mobile home.
The victim testified last week that Friend tortured and repeatedly raped her with several objects in his mobile home. She said he blindfolded her and ran a propane torch close to her skin. She eventually escaped.
Memo: Update
Edition: FINAL
Section: News
Page: D1
Index Terms: ASSAULT SEX CRIME AGE COURT VERDICT
Dateline: TACOMA
Copyright (c) 1987, 2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer (seattlep-i.com). All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Record Number: 8701220169
---------
Take a look on this sentence:
Officials said the victim was a runaway who accepted a ride from Friend near the Tacoma Dome after she attended a rock concert in the area
(Polly was originally titled "Hitchhiker", and later "Cracker") from Wikipedia
Let me take a ride <--- Polly said this after the rock concert to her Friend
after that they went to friends Caravan, that is where the dialog in Chorus happened
Cut Yourself <-- Junkies cut their skin and suck the blood so their feel high again
oh yeah, and this part:
Polly wants a cracker
Maybe she would like some food
only in Nevermind version I guess, in another version like in Album Incesticide, Unplugged, etc. was:
Polly wants a cracker
Maybe she would like more food
Polly was played many times in Concert and Album
I think this song maybe got special meaning to Kurt.
Peace, Love and Empathy
There's a point in the song where Cobain sings only "Polly says..." before pausing and starting over. This was a mistake in the studio that the band as well as the recording team liked, and left on the album. As evidenced in live performances, the mistake was "written in" to the song.