Why? What happened to the narrator made her feel like she lost her dignity or grip on life--"tumbling, I lose my ground." As someone mentioned above, "blackened crown" means shame; she feels ruined (not that I think abused people are ruined, but it's a common feeling). From the chorus and second verse, I gather that she's speaking to a parent or authority figure who didn't protect her from what was happening, because of ignorance or indifference. She feels she lost her "pearls," her innocence, before "you" stopped the abuse. The abuser was manipulative and good at hiding his/her actions, so the child didn't understand what was going on until it was "too late." Maybe there's also a bit of sarcasm, like if the narrator's "breath" was so "precious to you," then why didn't the parent find out sooner?
That's the only interpretation that really makes sense to me, now that I think about it. But it doesn't seem like something they'd write about, especially when Stacy was so young.
Why? What happened to the narrator made her feel like she lost her dignity or grip on life--"tumbling, I lose my ground." As someone mentioned above, "blackened crown" means shame; she feels ruined (not that I think abused people are ruined, but it's a common feeling). From the chorus and second verse, I gather that she's speaking to a parent or authority figure who didn't protect her from what was happening, because of ignorance or indifference. She feels she lost her "pearls," her innocence, before "you" stopped the abuse. The abuser was manipulative and good at hiding his/her actions, so the child didn't understand what was going on until it was "too late." Maybe there's also a bit of sarcasm, like if the narrator's "breath" was so "precious to you," then why didn't the parent find out sooner? That's the only interpretation that really makes sense to me, now that I think about it. But it doesn't seem like something they'd write about, especially when Stacy was so young.