Okay, so I know it's almost been a year since the last comment on this song, but I just finished listening to it at work and had to pop in.
Sillybunny was close, but I think it's taken too literally in the analyzation... also, I can't agree that the figurative minefield was laid by trying to protect them.
"No flags of truce, no cries of pity
The siege guns had been pounding all through the night"
In these two succinct lines I hear a fight between two lovers - neither is willing to sympathize with the other's point of view. The second line, though it says only one night, could symbolize a length of time where neither party let their guard down for many grueling months, seeming as intense as a night of endless gunfire. By the time the morning of the relationship dawns, cold and grey, each lover is so grim and emotionally exhausted that pity is not an option.
"As I returned across the fields I'd known
I recognized the walls that I once laid
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid"
This sounds to me like a moment of introspection; the narrator takes a look at his own memories of the relationship when all was good, and sees staggering before him the many steps that were taken (i.e., the walls once laid) by him that influenced the decline of the relationship. He sees his motives and understands them for what they were, good or bad - instead of taking aim at the lover, he's facing his contributions to the broken relationship and had to 'stop in his tracks for fear of walking on the mines he had laid.'
"And if I've built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire"
He realizes that he plays a part in his lover's guarded heart. Things he did to hurt her, intentionally or not, insensitivities and injustices forming a fortress around her emotionally, where he is no longer permitted entry.
He is now regretting what his share of this outcome and entreats her to allow him a way to make ammends - the metaphor of building bridges and being unable to fill the chasm symbolizes his acknowledgement of what he's done wrong, but she has made her mistakes, too - bridges go both ways, and both must reach compromise. Burning down the battlements means removing the need for fights with the compromises, therefore disarming her emotionally.
"Then I went off to fight some battle
That I'd invented inside my head
Away so long for years and years
You probably thought or even wished that I was dead"
Not literally that he left her and went off to battle, but as a figurative example of the man she knew and loved withdrawing into himself as the fighting got worse - someone who was once tender, loving and understanding becoming suspicious, antagonistic, and uncompromizing, for example. She considers the person she knew him to be as dead. He wishes to change her mind and tell her he's still there, beneath his own armor.
"This prison has now become your home
A sentence you seem prepared to pay"
Not that she feels deserving of punishment in some way - the prison is another description of the fortress, which is a metaphor for the coldness she bears towards him. She seems 'prepared to pay' the sentence because she has completely closed herself off to emotional contact with him. There may still be love for him inside the fortress, but she will not withdraw herself from it to allow herself to be hurt again.
"As I returned across the lands I'd known
I recognized the fields where I'd once played
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid
And if I've built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire"
Again, he returns to his memories of their past (the fields where I once played), and is reminded of better times when there were no fortresses or battlements, no need to protect themselves from one another. And, once again, he entreats her to let him make it right, and to assist in bridging the gap between their hearts.
All in all, it may not be the best unrequited love song out there, but lyrically, it's among the top of it's class.
@virtuallypainless Good writing and analysis. I was also thinking it could be a song from a father to a son or any parent to a child with essentially the same emotions and outcomes you mentioned above.
@virtuallypainless Good writing and analysis. I was also thinking it could be a song from a father to a son or any parent to a child with essentially the same emotions and outcomes you mentioned above.
Okay, so I know it's almost been a year since the last comment on this song, but I just finished listening to it at work and had to pop in.
Sillybunny was close, but I think it's taken too literally in the analyzation... also, I can't agree that the figurative minefield was laid by trying to protect them.
"No flags of truce, no cries of pity The siege guns had been pounding all through the night"
In these two succinct lines I hear a fight between two lovers - neither is willing to sympathize with the other's point of view. The second line, though it says only one night, could symbolize a length of time where neither party let their guard down for many grueling months, seeming as intense as a night of endless gunfire. By the time the morning of the relationship dawns, cold and grey, each lover is so grim and emotionally exhausted that pity is not an option.
"As I returned across the fields I'd known I recognized the walls that I once laid I had to stop in my tracks for fear Of walking on the mines I'd laid"
This sounds to me like a moment of introspection; the narrator takes a look at his own memories of the relationship when all was good, and sees staggering before him the many steps that were taken (i.e., the walls once laid) by him that influenced the decline of the relationship. He sees his motives and understands them for what they were, good or bad - instead of taking aim at the lover, he's facing his contributions to the broken relationship and had to 'stop in his tracks for fear of walking on the mines he had laid.'
"And if I've built this fortress around your heart Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire Then let me build a bridge For I cannot fill the chasm And let me set the battlements on fire"
He realizes that he plays a part in his lover's guarded heart. Things he did to hurt her, intentionally or not, insensitivities and injustices forming a fortress around her emotionally, where he is no longer permitted entry. He is now regretting what his share of this outcome and entreats her to allow him a way to make ammends - the metaphor of building bridges and being unable to fill the chasm symbolizes his acknowledgement of what he's done wrong, but she has made her mistakes, too - bridges go both ways, and both must reach compromise. Burning down the battlements means removing the need for fights with the compromises, therefore disarming her emotionally.
"Then I went off to fight some battle That I'd invented inside my head Away so long for years and years You probably thought or even wished that I was dead"
Not literally that he left her and went off to battle, but as a figurative example of the man she knew and loved withdrawing into himself as the fighting got worse - someone who was once tender, loving and understanding becoming suspicious, antagonistic, and uncompromizing, for example. She considers the person she knew him to be as dead. He wishes to change her mind and tell her he's still there, beneath his own armor.
"This prison has now become your home A sentence you seem prepared to pay"
Not that she feels deserving of punishment in some way - the prison is another description of the fortress, which is a metaphor for the coldness she bears towards him. She seems 'prepared to pay' the sentence because she has completely closed herself off to emotional contact with him. There may still be love for him inside the fortress, but she will not withdraw herself from it to allow herself to be hurt again.
"As I returned across the lands I'd known I recognized the fields where I'd once played I had to stop in my tracks for fear Of walking on the mines I'd laid
And if I've built this fortress around your heart Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire Then let me build a bridge For I cannot fill the chasm And let me set the battlements on fire"
Again, he returns to his memories of their past (the fields where I once played), and is reminded of better times when there were no fortresses or battlements, no need to protect themselves from one another. And, once again, he entreats her to let him make it right, and to assist in bridging the gap between their hearts.
All in all, it may not be the best unrequited love song out there, but lyrically, it's among the top of it's class.
@virtuallypainless Good writing and analysis. I was also thinking it could be a song from a father to a son or any parent to a child with essentially the same emotions and outcomes you mentioned above.
@virtuallypainless Good writing and analysis. I was also thinking it could be a song from a father to a son or any parent to a child with essentially the same emotions and outcomes you mentioned above.