I don't agree with the poster who suggested this was about religious divide in Ireland, but I guess the lyrics are generic enough for you to interpret however you want.
This song is really about an unrequited homosexual attraction that you try and deny to yourself until it consumes you. A love for someone which you knew if confessed would destroy that friendship, and the rejection would destroy you with it; a rejection that you rehearse a hundred times in your mind, each time feeling it reduce you to the "dirt" of the opening lyrics. The fear of "causing commotion" and losing his love altogether is enough to keep him in-the-closet regarding his feelings, and through that fear the song is infused with guilt, angst, shame, claustrophobia, introspection, confession, loneliness.
Don't let its simplicity fool you - this is a powerful emotional song that should reduce you to tears.
I don't agree with the poster who suggested this was about religious divide in Ireland, but I guess the lyrics are generic enough for you to interpret however you want.
This song is really about an unrequited homosexual attraction that you try and deny to yourself until it consumes you. A love for someone which you knew if confessed would destroy that friendship, and the rejection would destroy you with it; a rejection that you rehearse a hundred times in your mind, each time feeling it reduce you to the "dirt" of the opening lyrics. The fear of "causing commotion" and losing his love altogether is enough to keep him in-the-closet regarding his feelings, and through that fear the song is infused with guilt, angst, shame, claustrophobia, introspection, confession, loneliness.
Don't let its simplicity fool you - this is a powerful emotional song that should reduce you to tears.