The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Looking down on empty streets, all she can see
Are the dreams all made solid
Are the dreams made real
All of the buildings, all of the cars
Were once just a dream
In somebody's head
She pictures the broken glass, pictures the steam
She pictures a soul
With no leak at the seam
Let's take the boat out
Wait until darkness
Let's take the boat out
Wait until darkness comes
Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey
Nowhere in the suburbs
In the cold light of day
There in the midst of it, so alive and alone
Words support like bone
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Where you're inside out
Dreaming of Mercy
In your daddy's arms again
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Swear they moved that sign
Dreaming of Mercy
In your daddy's arms
Pulling out the papers from drawers that slide smooth
Tugging at the darkness, word upon word
Confessing all the secret things in the warm velvet box
To the priest, he's the doctor
He can handle the shocks
Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips
Of kissing Mary's lips
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Where you're inside out
Dreaming of Mercy
In your daddy's arms again
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Swear they moved that sign
Looking for mercy
In your daddy's arms
Mercy, Mercy, looking for Mercy Street
Looking for Mercy
Mercy, looking for Mercy
Looking for Mercy
Looking for Mercy
Oh, Mercy
Looking for mercy
I'm with the father, is out in the boat
Riding the water
Riding the waves on the sea
Are the dreams all made solid
Are the dreams made real
All of the buildings, all of the cars
Were once just a dream
In somebody's head
She pictures the broken glass, pictures the steam
She pictures a soul
With no leak at the seam
Let's take the boat out
Wait until darkness
Let's take the boat out
Wait until darkness comes
Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey
Nowhere in the suburbs
In the cold light of day
There in the midst of it, so alive and alone
Words support like bone
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Where you're inside out
Dreaming of Mercy
In your daddy's arms again
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Swear they moved that sign
Dreaming of Mercy
In your daddy's arms
Pulling out the papers from drawers that slide smooth
Tugging at the darkness, word upon word
Confessing all the secret things in the warm velvet box
To the priest, he's the doctor
He can handle the shocks
Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips
Of kissing Mary's lips
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Where you're inside out
Dreaming of Mercy
In your daddy's arms again
Dreaming of Mercy Street
Swear they moved that sign
Looking for mercy
In your daddy's arms
Mercy, Mercy, looking for Mercy Street
Looking for Mercy
Mercy, looking for Mercy
Looking for Mercy
Looking for Mercy
Oh, Mercy
Looking for mercy
I'm with the father, is out in the boat
Riding the water
Riding the waves on the sea
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More Featured Meanings
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
The poetry references are well done. I agree with pretty much everything there. But, though I appreciate the input of Miranda, she is wildly misinformed. "Anne Sexton was sexually abused by her parents." This has actually been denied by every member of Anne's family. Even Anne's own psychiatrist believes that she made up the fact that her father sexually abused her, though it's been included in her biography because her therapist thought it was "real to Anne." "When she was in her 20's she tried committing suicide with a piece of "broken glass" and went to see a psychiartist not long after." Actually, this couldn't be more wrong. Yes, she did attempt suicide, but with pills after she gave birth to Linda and not a "piece of broken glass." The broken glass is more likely a reference to the dreams she sees that are now broken. "I think I read somewhere that her parents died while on vaction. Their boat tipped over and they drowned..."let's take the boat out, wait until darkness."- Ummm... whoever wrote that needs to be smacked. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Anne Sexton's parents deaths are well documented in her poetry. Her mother died of breast cancer- and her father died from... something wrong with his brain not too long after if I remember correctly what she said in her poems. "Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey" refers to her looking for mercy in her house in the "suburbs." -I see this as more of a reference to institutions. "It said in the biography that I took from the library that her parents urged her not to tell anyone about the things that happened at home. After they died, she felt like she could finally let everything out." -What biography did you read?! This is insanely inaccurate- not even close. "She went to a church and confessed to a "a priest--he's the doctor, he can handle the shocks." The shocks are referring to the cruel things her parents did to her." -Actually this is a dual reference: to shock treatment and to the poem "The Kiss" in which she likens sex to ECTs, which makes sense. She told her shrink that the only good thing she could do with her life was to become a prostitute and make men feel powerful. The priest reference is a reference to how much faith she put into the practice of psychiatry. "Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips, of kissing Mary's lips"...Mary is Anne Sexton's mother. -While yes, this is true, this is most likely a reference to the virgin Mary. Anne, as she grew older, became increasingly more religious, even writing letters to a clergy man who fell in love with her. Sorry, I just needed to clear that up...
As for my personal interpretation, I think this is probably documenting what happened right before Anne died. After she divorced her husband, who was a large part of her life, she realized that she was alone, one of her biggest fears. "looking down on empty streets, all she can see are the dreams all made solid are the dreams all made real" She is looking back on what she used to have... looking back on what she tried desperately to create. Still yearning for Mercy Street, a place that she thinks she can find only in death. So, she kills herself and finally ends that "Awful Rowing Toward God" by joining her father who was abusive, yes but not sexually, emotionally (she had an acute case of acne growing up and he often expressed disgust at her appearance), but who she wanted to love her.