Undertow Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Red October 

Cover art for Undertow lyrics by Suzanne Vega

To me this song speaks of a great outpouring of hatred. She's singing about someone she hates, and destroying them utterly.
The lines "Once I thought only tears could make us free" say that at first she has turned her feeling inward and is crying about her hatred. The next verse "I wanted to learn all the secrets From the edge of a knife From the point of a needle From a diamond From a bullet in flight I would be free then" Is unmistakably violent and she's talking about how she's going to destroy this object of her hatred.

Now maybe this is about the ravages of anorexia but the lyrics read too litreally for that to work too well, at least in my mind. They basically read "I hate you. I'm going to kill you."