I wrote a literary analysis on some of Tim's work. I got the most out of this song, and these are by far the best lyrics he's ever written as far as I'm concerned. It's so vivid and so descriptive. anyway this is what I wrote about it. And I refer to it as a poem cuz I wasn't sure if my professor would take lyrics.... but Tim's lyrics do pass as modern poetry. I think he was a philosophy major, but it wouldn't surprise me if he took some serious creative writing classes. You can really tell his lryics taking a step up in Frail Words Collapse, and again in Shadows are Security. anyway... here's what i wrote:
I really like this poem. I think it narrates how Lambesis worked on a particular piece–one that held an extremely heavy emotional meaning for him. He used whatever work this poem describes as a way to vent that burden.
The first two lines are great images. “I laid the night before/unraveled the tangles of my heart”. This is great use of concrete image to convey not only his emotional state, but also what he was trying to accomplish in his work.
Similar to the “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams, where the paint on the wheelbarrow keeps getting richer and richer, if youlook at the water analogies, they start off as mild, then become more and more extreme. First he mentions a stream of uncertainty, becoming more extreme and harsh until the streams become torrents of guilt and shame. They finally culminate as “an endless ocean of self defeat,” as if the stream, torrents, and oceans are an allusion to the emotions–the swelling of them as he writes–that he’s experiencing. Self defeat is the culmination of all his grief, and he feels lost in an ocean of it, helplessly. It’s as if the streams and torrents are what carried him into his a state if agony and fed his creativity.
After the lines: “as time goes on/some months are yet to pass,” the metaphor changes. Instead of sorting the emotions and writing, he is >>>reflecting<<< on what he has written.
“Puddles of ink/surround this tired chair” is a great image. It says so much, and it is so vivid. “Puddles of ink” represents what he has written down while reflecting. His sorrow “has been spilled into (his) reflection”. The title of the poem is “Reflection,” so that line could mean his sorrow was spilled into this particular poem, which he possibly considers as a sort of emotional reflection of himself. It could also mean that this poem is a reflection of how he felt while writing.
I wrote a literary analysis on some of Tim's work. I got the most out of this song, and these are by far the best lyrics he's ever written as far as I'm concerned. It's so vivid and so descriptive. anyway this is what I wrote about it. And I refer to it as a poem cuz I wasn't sure if my professor would take lyrics.... but Tim's lyrics do pass as modern poetry. I think he was a philosophy major, but it wouldn't surprise me if he took some serious creative writing classes. You can really tell his lryics taking a step up in Frail Words Collapse, and again in Shadows are Security. anyway... here's what i wrote:
I really like this poem. I think it narrates how Lambesis worked on a particular piece–one that held an extremely heavy emotional meaning for him. He used whatever work this poem describes as a way to vent that burden.
The first two lines are great images. “I laid the night before/unraveled the tangles of my heart”. This is great use of concrete image to convey not only his emotional state, but also what he was trying to accomplish in his work.
Similar to the “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams, where the paint on the wheelbarrow keeps getting richer and richer, if youlook at the water analogies, they start off as mild, then become more and more extreme. First he mentions a stream of uncertainty, becoming more extreme and harsh until the streams become torrents of guilt and shame. They finally culminate as “an endless ocean of self defeat,” as if the stream, torrents, and oceans are an allusion to the emotions–the swelling of them as he writes–that he’s experiencing. Self defeat is the culmination of all his grief, and he feels lost in an ocean of it, helplessly. It’s as if the streams and torrents are what carried him into his a state if agony and fed his creativity.
After the lines: “as time goes on/some months are yet to pass,” the metaphor changes. Instead of sorting the emotions and writing, he is >>>reflecting<<< on what he has written.
“Puddles of ink/surround this tired chair” is a great image. It says so much, and it is so vivid. “Puddles of ink” represents what he has written down while reflecting. His sorrow “has been spilled into (his) reflection”. The title of the poem is “Reflection,” so that line could mean his sorrow was spilled into this particular poem, which he possibly considers as a sort of emotional reflection of himself. It could also mean that this poem is a reflection of how he felt while writing.