Stumpside

I seem to think it's about poor or peasant like people that hold onto strange and outdated superstitions in the hope that things will get better or that they might receive gifts or blessings later in life. The allegories expressed in the song suggest witchcraft IMO: we come alone and leave alone and we look the horse in mouth/we scratch the skin and break the bone and see bird migrating south as well as telling stories by stumpside. Wishes and superstition that keep a person going with their hard and mundane life while the meaning and the outcome sometimes escapes them. The music also has a haunting sadness that seems to accent this possiblity.

Hi, does anyone know what this song is about? Could it be leprosy? What is the significance of the stump? Thanks. :)

We are blisses inhabiting this very kind person—what are blisses?—we never said. And she has been doing her absolute best to hold her own with us even though all we gave her was that dull paring knife to peel potatoes—metaphorically—for far too long. Carrying candles with pains in her chest is a metaphor for tangling with religion that doesn’t deliver what it promises even though she knows this and pretty much ignores it. Full of metaphors, face tied together with three times used string refers to the fact that her trinity is assisting her in the endless endeavors that she tackles—most of the time without a clue on how to proceed. She’s been heartlessly ignored [although this is truly the only way this can go at present] and animals do like her. She comes alone but with a crowd and looking the horse in the mouth makes reference to the crowd. She studies everything—referring to scratching the skin, breaking the bone and watching the birds. The stump is a metaphor for here—hard to explain so a stump will suffice. The bell ring refers to the line from “It’s a Wonderful Life” that mentions fairies getting their wings whenever a bell rings. She’s mentioned to those she’s shared this all with that there’s no point in leaping on her to ask other questions because she has told all she knows—don’t bother looking for what I neglected to bring. She has fallen farther than feathers that float in the wind. She wishes for peace and the arrangement’s not quite … quite … there [borrowed from Mimi on the Beach]. Just kidding. Who knows what the song means …

this song sounds like its about really nasty surgery or disease like "if you hear a bell ring you get some wings" like the thing from that movie whenever a bell rings an angel gets it wings or it could be like on the surgery table when you hear the heart moniter beep go flat (bell ring) you are officially dead (get wings like turn into an angel) and the face held together with three time used strings like stitches except ew... gross

We come alone and leave alone and look the horse in the mouth. We scratch the skin and break the bone and see birds migrating south.

like an examination and then medicine breaking bones, surgery to make it go right

and

Fixing a fencepost or feeding a cow, Twopenny saltlick I never ask how. Animals like me though folks turn away, I like the pigeons I like what they say.

sounds like people think shes creepy because the surgery or disease (yeah like leprosy?) so she has animial friends

I saw a wishing well down by the stream I never understood what wishes mean Just ask for nothing you get what you get. I asked for something I've not got it yet.

like a cure??

Er... I think there aren't two many metaphors. The whole song is probably one, though I just see it as a story. It seems like the narrator has some serious physical deformity and has had a surgery leaving them.. freakish-looking (the mention of the face tied by string and the pain in the chest). That's why they can only do solitary work for a living (it's obvious people can't bear to look at them because they say only animals like them).

All the references of being alone suggest the narrator's obvious alienation resulting from their appearance.

The part about the women telling her things by the stump makes me imagine some old lady telling little kids wild stories (the part about the bell and wings). The narrator hears these stories and doesn't believe/understand them. Perhaps they had this deformity all their life and thus never learned to hope?

It's a confusing song, but this is how I saw it.

For some reason, I keep thinking that this song is about someone who has a special friendship, or a confused identity, with a scarecrow.

The face with the three-times-used string, the stump, and the pigeons saying things, all play into a scarecrow theme.

This is such a beautiful and chilling song, I absolutely love it!

As for the meaning, I think it's about someone who's seriously deformed. The line "Animals like me though folks turn away" seems to say how she's only able to talk to animals because she scares away people.

I'm not quite sure though. Much of the song doesn't seem to go with my idea on the meaning, so I might be wrong. Melora seems to enjoy confusing us with her lyrics.