There are a few reasonable interpretations of "stoney end." As someone here points out, it could be a reference to the mine her mother worked. In which case the chorus would perhaps mean she never wanted to follow her mother into the mine.
Someone elsewhere suggested it could mean she didn't want to be stoned as a sinner, which is satisfyingly literal. Another suggested that she was talking about being baptized in a river, since they often are have ringed with stones. I had also thought of death, since people are put into cemetaries full of stone monuments.
I don't want to see the morning sounds like suicidal ideation, or at least extreme despair.
My current theory, FWIW, is this: She got knocked up, sees her life proceeding just as her mother's had, leading her to work the mines to support her child, and she'd rather be dead. She wishes she could just return to childhood and the cradle and relive her life making better choices this time.
There are a few reasonable interpretations of "stoney end." As someone here points out, it could be a reference to the mine her mother worked. In which case the chorus would perhaps mean she never wanted to follow her mother into the mine.
Someone elsewhere suggested it could mean she didn't want to be stoned as a sinner, which is satisfyingly literal. Another suggested that she was talking about being baptized in a river, since they often are have ringed with stones. I had also thought of death, since people are put into cemetaries full of stone monuments.
I don't want to see the morning sounds like suicidal ideation, or at least extreme despair.
My current theory, FWIW, is this: She got knocked up, sees her life proceeding just as her mother's had, leading her to work the mines to support her child, and she'd rather be dead. She wishes she could just return to childhood and the cradle and relive her life making better choices this time.