That the speaker is suffering the loss of a lover is fairly obvious from the opening verse, the lover implied by "when your hand was in my pocket", and how the trees appear to have lost their life. Nature plays an integral role in Case's lyrics, and here reflects how she sees the world -- everything is still and dead, in contrast to when they were together. "Now the meddling sky and my snowy eye / Sees a different light" continue this theme, showing how radically she feels her life has changed.
What exactly she means by "the lion's jaws" is difficult to decipher with any certainty, but the line "to my regret and your delight" indicates that she must have given in to something, which may be sex, or love, or both. Much of the album seems to be about the cycle of hesitation to follow our desires, then confirmation of our concerns. "Lion's Jaw" might follow "That Teenage Feeling", wherein the speaker wishes she could love someone, but her heart has grown "green as weeds", hard from past experiences. Here, she finally allows herself to embrace those feelings, but she knows how delicate romance is -- "the haze I wish you'd never break / And to never contemplate", how love can be ineffable.
The closing lines, in repetition, seem a sort of resignation: the pleasure she once felt is gone, and now she's living just to live.
That the speaker is suffering the loss of a lover is fairly obvious from the opening verse, the lover implied by "when your hand was in my pocket", and how the trees appear to have lost their life. Nature plays an integral role in Case's lyrics, and here reflects how she sees the world -- everything is still and dead, in contrast to when they were together. "Now the meddling sky and my snowy eye / Sees a different light" continue this theme, showing how radically she feels her life has changed.
What exactly she means by "the lion's jaws" is difficult to decipher with any certainty, but the line "to my regret and your delight" indicates that she must have given in to something, which may be sex, or love, or both. Much of the album seems to be about the cycle of hesitation to follow our desires, then confirmation of our concerns. "Lion's Jaw" might follow "That Teenage Feeling", wherein the speaker wishes she could love someone, but her heart has grown "green as weeds", hard from past experiences. Here, she finally allows herself to embrace those feelings, but she knows how delicate romance is -- "the haze I wish you'd never break / And to never contemplate", how love can be ineffable.
The closing lines, in repetition, seem a sort of resignation: the pleasure she once felt is gone, and now she's living just to live.