This song is based on Shakespeare's story of King Lear, and I absolutely love how it's brilliance allows everyone to find an interpretation relevant to them!
"Rip the Earth in two with your mind" - The opening scene of King Lear shows the frail, elderly King dividing up his kingdom between his three daughters. He asks the daughters to proclaim their love for him in order to prove they deserve his inheritance. Lear's youngest daughter, Cordelia, is the only one to realise that love cannot simply be spoken up on demand, and refuses to compete with her sisters (who are simply desperate for land and power). As a result, Lear divides the map on the table between his two eldest daughters, and so the country ('Earth') has been split in two by simply a conscious decision ('mind') and a map.
In a fit of rage, Lear now banishes Cordelia (the only daughter to truly love him) from the country. At the end of the play, with Lear's descent into madness complete, Cordelia returns. Lear begs her forgiveness, and she obliges. But Cordelia is later killed; in the final scene, Lear enters howling and sobbing, carrying her body. He holds her and cries, and imagines he can see a tear drop from her eye
'I never meant you any harm / But your tears feel warm as they fall on my forearm'.
As Lear rages at Cordelia in the opening scene, his old friend Kent begs him to stop, sensing that he is angry and mad, and understanding that Cordelia has done nothing wrong. But for stepping up too the King, Kent too is banished. He accepts his punishment with humility, wanting only to continue to help his old King. Lear has forced from the world Kent's patient smile.
'How can you say that your truth is better than ours' - Truth is a running theme throughout the play. Edmund questions mankind's preoccupation with superstition, saying it is foolish to ascribe personality traits based on star signs, or to expect eclipses to affect the world. But Edmund's belittling of such things runs perilously close to atheism, and his truth is not accepted by the religious majority.
'The blind man sleeps in the doorway his home' - Eyes and blindness are another theme running throughout the play. Gloucester has his eyes cruelly stamped out by Lear's daughter Reagan and her husband; there are many more references, all linking back to Lear's blindness in not realising that Cordelia was the only daughter who truly loved him. This is referred to in the chorus, 'I closed my eyes for a while'
'But I gave you all'
'I gave you all' is one of the most powerful quotes in the play: Lear, betrayed by his two evil daughters, pleads with them, for he gave them all of the land and power that they use against him. "And in good time you gave it", replies Reagan.
I absolutely love the build-up to a crescendo before the final verse. It reminds me of the storm in the middle of the play, when Lear is at his lowest and maddest, screaming curses at the rain and thunder whilst ripping the clothes from his back.
I'm sure there are plenty more references I haven't noticed. It's a great song. And a fantastic play.
@WestCoKent okay i did not know this and i love you for sharing your brilliance. You're right, it's simplified to a point where everyone can relate and give it their own meaning. But at the same time, your analysis is so epic and thank you for that
@WestCoKent okay i did not know this and i love you for sharing your brilliance. You're right, it's simplified to a point where everyone can relate and give it their own meaning. But at the same time, your analysis is so epic and thank you for that
This song is based on Shakespeare's story of King Lear, and I absolutely love how it's brilliance allows everyone to find an interpretation relevant to them!
"Rip the Earth in two with your mind" - The opening scene of King Lear shows the frail, elderly King dividing up his kingdom between his three daughters. He asks the daughters to proclaim their love for him in order to prove they deserve his inheritance. Lear's youngest daughter, Cordelia, is the only one to realise that love cannot simply be spoken up on demand, and refuses to compete with her sisters (who are simply desperate for land and power). As a result, Lear divides the map on the table between his two eldest daughters, and so the country ('Earth') has been split in two by simply a conscious decision ('mind') and a map.
In a fit of rage, Lear now banishes Cordelia (the only daughter to truly love him) from the country. At the end of the play, with Lear's descent into madness complete, Cordelia returns. Lear begs her forgiveness, and she obliges. But Cordelia is later killed; in the final scene, Lear enters howling and sobbing, carrying her body. He holds her and cries, and imagines he can see a tear drop from her eye
'I never meant you any harm / But your tears feel warm as they fall on my forearm'.
As Lear rages at Cordelia in the opening scene, his old friend Kent begs him to stop, sensing that he is angry and mad, and understanding that Cordelia has done nothing wrong. But for stepping up too the King, Kent too is banished. He accepts his punishment with humility, wanting only to continue to help his old King. Lear has forced from the world Kent's patient smile.
'How can you say that your truth is better than ours' - Truth is a running theme throughout the play. Edmund questions mankind's preoccupation with superstition, saying it is foolish to ascribe personality traits based on star signs, or to expect eclipses to affect the world. But Edmund's belittling of such things runs perilously close to atheism, and his truth is not accepted by the religious majority.
'The blind man sleeps in the doorway his home' - Eyes and blindness are another theme running throughout the play. Gloucester has his eyes cruelly stamped out by Lear's daughter Reagan and her husband; there are many more references, all linking back to Lear's blindness in not realising that Cordelia was the only daughter who truly loved him. This is referred to in the chorus, 'I closed my eyes for a while'
'But I gave you all'
'I gave you all' is one of the most powerful quotes in the play: Lear, betrayed by his two evil daughters, pleads with them, for he gave them all of the land and power that they use against him. "And in good time you gave it", replies Reagan.
I absolutely love the build-up to a crescendo before the final verse. It reminds me of the storm in the middle of the play, when Lear is at his lowest and maddest, screaming curses at the rain and thunder whilst ripping the clothes from his back.
I'm sure there are plenty more references I haven't noticed. It's a great song. And a fantastic play.
@WestCoKent okay i did not know this and i love you for sharing your brilliance. You're right, it's simplified to a point where everyone can relate and give it their own meaning. But at the same time, your analysis is so epic and thank you for that
@WestCoKent okay i did not know this and i love you for sharing your brilliance. You're right, it's simplified to a point where everyone can relate and give it their own meaning. But at the same time, your analysis is so epic and thank you for that