I think this a song about her boyfriend who was suddenly killed when she was 23. This is my interpretation:
In each verse she talks to a different part of herself.
It isn't explicitly clear until the third verse though why she is doing this. It turns out she was holding her dying boyfriend this whole time.
"He walks out on you" doesn't mean the guy is leaving her for another woman, but that he was passing away. She had a hand on his wound and she didn't want the guy's last experience on Earth to be watching her breaking down and covered in his blood ("don't let him bleed under your nails"||"tears, don't you come out" || "don't let him hear the break in your voice"|| "heart don't beat so loud").
In the third verse she is removing her hand, since he has finally passed away and no longer able to grasp her hand back ["Hand let go of his with ease ..."].
To summarize,so as not to exasperate the situation she chose to beg her emotions, feelings, and body to 'hold on' until after he passes.
I believe the next verse "Oh Lord take off thy crown, you're my king no more..." is one of the most powerful verses ever written. In it, she is conveying that her spirituality/faith has been devastated by this loss because of how ["merciless"] God ("Lord") would have to be to take away the person she loved so much.
The last 2 verses are the repeats, but I believe they have a slightly different meaning in this second context.
Finally, now that he passed away, she can let herself cry but is still holding tears back because she knows that the moment she does she will probably enter a depression ("If you blind me now, I am defeated")
I think this a song about her boyfriend who was suddenly killed when she was 23. This is my interpretation:
In each verse she talks to a different part of herself.
It isn't explicitly clear until the third verse though why she is doing this. It turns out she was holding her dying boyfriend this whole time.
"He walks out on you" doesn't mean the guy is leaving her for another woman, but that he was passing away. She had a hand on his wound and she didn't want the guy's last experience on Earth to be watching her breaking down and covered in his blood ("don't let him bleed under your nails"||"tears, don't you come out" || "don't let him hear the break in your voice"|| "heart don't beat so loud").
In the third verse she is removing her hand, since he has finally passed away and no longer able to grasp her hand back ["Hand let go of his with ease ..."].
To summarize,so as not to exasperate the situation she chose to beg her emotions, feelings, and body to 'hold on' until after he passes.
I believe the next verse "Oh Lord take off thy crown, you're my king no more..." is one of the most powerful verses ever written. In it, she is conveying that her spirituality/faith has been devastated by this loss because of how ["merciless"] God ("Lord") would have to be to take away the person she loved so much.
The last 2 verses are the repeats, but I believe they have a slightly different meaning in this second context.
Finally, now that he passed away, she can let herself cry but is still holding tears back because she knows that the moment she does she will probably enter a depression ("If you blind me now, I am defeated")
@thenameisbill Bill, thank you for this interpretation full of inspiring thought. Is that a reliable fact what you wrote about her dying boyfriend?
@thenameisbill Bill, thank you for this interpretation full of inspiring thought. Is that a reliable fact what you wrote about her dying boyfriend?