First off, I <3 this song. My friend sent me a message the other day asking me what I thought it was about, and I spent like an hour writing up this response so I figured I might as well post it on here:
Yeah, I'm kind of in the "no fucking clue" boat myself, but I have a few ideas. Insert pretentious posturing here: In a way, I feel like it's an approach to love coming from the female perspective-- understanding the fact that for much of the world love exists in a society which is largely paternalistic and misogynistic. Here, the "mountain" would be love, and the verses are coming from the girl's perspective.
In the first verse, as she's listing all the things she would rather be than herself (bandit [stealing love without care, perhaps?], man [half of the reason that I bring the gender issue into this], whisper in heaven [perhaps a fleeting encounter rather than a lasting affair]) in this situation, it seems like she's coming to a rather pessimistic formulation of love's positive worth for females, but it seems that she has accepted it as a part of her life at the same time-- telling herself to run the "mountain" down without thinking about it too much, perhaps?
It's especially hard to really try to interpret this song because it seems like the perspective shifts in between the verse and the chorus. As if we are coming out of a subjective, first person verse into an objective, third person chorus, we are told that the 'protagonist' is airborne, has silver rays, etc. Here it seems like we are seeing the more positive side of love, the pure rapture of emotion if you will. But, still there is an air of incredulity with the two questions at the end of the chorus. Will it ever float? Will it ever soar along? So, our heroine of the song is caught up in the feeling of love, but still unsure of its benefits.
The third verse really punctuates this idea of an unsure acceptance of love for me, at least. "Grip the crown like winner, pretending like a beginner." Here, she seems to be trying to persuade herself that it feels right, and hoping that if she just assumes the feeling to be real then it eventually will be-- not letting the trials of her past overshadow her hope for her future.
The coda brings in the imagery of a "feathered hand". Perhaps, this symbolizes this pretension that I mentioned in the last paragraph. To me, it makes me think of the story of Icarus, which fits perfectly into the questions about soaring and such. Maybe the comparison here is that losing yourself in love is like putting feathers on your hands and hoping you can fly? That sounds a bit too pessimistic, but who knows.
First off, I <3 this song. My friend sent me a message the other day asking me what I thought it was about, and I spent like an hour writing up this response so I figured I might as well post it on here:
Yeah, I'm kind of in the "no fucking clue" boat myself, but I have a few ideas. Insert pretentious posturing here: In a way, I feel like it's an approach to love coming from the female perspective-- understanding the fact that for much of the world love exists in a society which is largely paternalistic and misogynistic. Here, the "mountain" would be love, and the verses are coming from the girl's perspective.
In the first verse, as she's listing all the things she would rather be than herself (bandit [stealing love without care, perhaps?], man [half of the reason that I bring the gender issue into this], whisper in heaven [perhaps a fleeting encounter rather than a lasting affair]) in this situation, it seems like she's coming to a rather pessimistic formulation of love's positive worth for females, but it seems that she has accepted it as a part of her life at the same time-- telling herself to run the "mountain" down without thinking about it too much, perhaps?
It's especially hard to really try to interpret this song because it seems like the perspective shifts in between the verse and the chorus. As if we are coming out of a subjective, first person verse into an objective, third person chorus, we are told that the 'protagonist' is airborne, has silver rays, etc. Here it seems like we are seeing the more positive side of love, the pure rapture of emotion if you will. But, still there is an air of incredulity with the two questions at the end of the chorus. Will it ever float? Will it ever soar along? So, our heroine of the song is caught up in the feeling of love, but still unsure of its benefits.
The third verse really punctuates this idea of an unsure acceptance of love for me, at least. "Grip the crown like winner, pretending like a beginner." Here, she seems to be trying to persuade herself that it feels right, and hoping that if she just assumes the feeling to be real then it eventually will be-- not letting the trials of her past overshadow her hope for her future.
The coda brings in the imagery of a "feathered hand". Perhaps, this symbolizes this pretension that I mentioned in the last paragraph. To me, it makes me think of the story of Icarus, which fits perfectly into the questions about soaring and such. Maybe the comparison here is that losing yourself in love is like putting feathers on your hands and hoping you can fly? That sounds a bit too pessimistic, but who knows.