Lyrics for The Queen And The Soldier as interpreted by Novartza

The Queen And The Soldier Lyrics
The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"
The queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before
And slowly she let him inside
He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill
And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill
But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will
Only first I am asking you why."
Down in the long narrow hall he was led
Into her rooms with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head
She asked him there to sit down. He said,
"I see you now, and you are so very young
But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won
And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun
And now will you tell me why?"
The young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye
She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"
But her face was a child's, and he thought she would cry
But she closed herself up like a fan.
And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread
It cuts me inside, and often I've bled"
He laid his hand then on top of her head
And he bowed her down to the ground.
"Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel
As you are living here alone, and you are never revealed
But I won't march again on your battlefield"
And he took her to the window to see.
And the sun, it was gold, though the sky, it was gray
And she wanted more than she ever could say
But she knew how it frightened her, and she turned away
And would not look at his face again.
And he said, "I want to live as an honest man
To get all I deserve and to give all I can
And to love a young woman who I don't understand
Your highness, your ways are very strange."
But the crown, it had fallen, and she thought she would break
And she stood there, ashamed of the way her heart ached
She took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait
She would only be a moment inside.
Out in the distance her order was heard
And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word
And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
The battle continued on

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muisje
06-06-2003

Rated 0 
strange that there isn't anybody who gives comment on this fabulous song... it's an extraordinairy story, really tragic and it touched me deeply...

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rosie989
06-09-2003

Rated 0 
this song is so beautiful.. but i'm confused about the end.. does she order him killed? or is it by chance that he dies in the one moment that he is trying to save his own life?

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lostinspace
06-10-2003

Rated 0 
Great song. I know this is from a female's perspective but I can relate to it myself. This song is about fear of commitment. There are a lot of metaphors in there which are fairly obvious.
She falls in love with the guy but she is so scared of being hurt she decides to not to call him or see him anymore. The soldier did not die. but to her its easier to think of him as dead. That would take away the temptation of getting back in touch with man because she clearly loves him. I think its really nice how she uses the queen and the soldier metaphor and how love (sometimes) is such a battle.

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ItsAllIWant
02-08-2005

Rated 0 
such a beautiful song. I first heard it when I was five years old, and ever since then it has struck a chord with me.

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bartoshek
03-14-2005

Rated 0 
I have always thought of this song as a simple ballad, which is why I loved it so much. There is not enough writers who can write a true ballad, but she is definately one. That is why the interpertation of lostinspace surprised me - I did not see the metaphore.
And I still have trouble with some of it's parts - for example, why is she saying to him that You won'y understand? and why is he saying that he just want to mary a young woman he doesn't understand, and speaks to her as Your Highness?
The plain intepertation of this song, as a tragic story, is still more beautifull in my view.

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maxwellsmart
01-14-2006

Rated 0 
It is a beautiful song, but she does have him killed in the end. It is more tragic that she would choose the unhappiness and isolation she knew over the possibility of love with him, but also probably more true to life that way.

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delay
02-10-2006

Rated 0 
I agree with lostinspace that it's a metaphor -- but not just for a lovestory (though it fits that too). Try this notion:


The conversation is the symbolic, inner monologue of a person faced with some undefined need to change their life (possibly growing into an adult lovelife -- that'd explain why voices are different genders). Their sense says they should -- their heart says it's too risky, they might lose even the partial happiness they have now, and it's better to continue as they have.

The Queen is the heart, passion, impulse, youth, emotion, fear of change. She's powerful, but impetuous and uncertain and makes bad calls because of that. ("The young queen she fixed him with an arrogant eye, she said 'You won't understand, and you may as well not try,' but her face was a child's and he thought she would cry")

The Soldier is sense, growing up, experience, understanding, responsibility. Like good common sense, he's simple, confident, and bluntly honest. ("'How hungry are you, how weak you must feel, as you are living here alone and you are never revealed" -- "I want to live as an honest man, get all I deserve, and give all I can")

The question is faced, sense seems to have won, but at the last minute the person allows their emotion to take hold again. ("And he took her to the window to see. Well the sun it was gold, though the sky it was gray, and she wanted more than she ever could say, but she knew how it frightened her, and she turned away, and would not look at his face again")


The Queen orders the soldier killed, and the battle continues -- aka, the person doesn't make the life-change their good sense is trying to tell them is desperately needed.

Yeah, it's a beautiful song. All the better because it's so hard to decode.

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mockingsmile
06-27-2006

Rated 0 
I agree with delay.
This was the first song I learned to play on the guitar like two years ago--Am Am F F C G C G..

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ninehalo
06-30-2006

Rated 0 
It's all symbolism.

The queen is the woman who likes men to fight for her attention - that's the soldiers and their battles. She likes to flirt with them. "Never once taking the crown from her head" refers to her need to retain power over men and so she will not open up.

Although she feels an emptiness inside because of her inability to form a real relationship, she is too afraid of being hurt.

The story is about a good man who gets close to her but she pushes him away.

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Rosemage
12-18-2006

Rated 0 
i actually think Delay has this pretty much summed up. I love the personality Suzanne gave these two in so little words. gorgeous song - one that's meant something to me for a long, long time...

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Sandhan
12-21-2006

Rated 0 
I was about 10 when i first heard it, and have sung it ever since, the ballad quality of her songs makes them easy to remember. Then one day your subconscious makes the connection and you find yourself singing one of her songs and it just sums up all that you're going through. Then you know Delay, Ninehalo and lostinspace are all on the money.

She's a genius.

and today i am, a small blue thing.

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rmusic
01-22-2007

Rated 0 
i think she did get him killeg in the end.. she's thinking for a moment what would be esier for her- be honest with herself and love him, or kill him. because she is not ready for commitment she decided to kill him.. i think she's killing all this innocent people so she wouldn't feel soft (love).. she thinks that a queen is not allowed to fall in love and she doesn't want to look weak

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gypsy_eyes
02-18-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song can be interpreted as romance ballad but to me that is not what it is foremostly about. To me the song is about having a very hard choice to make and choosing wrong just to save face. The story shows that the queen is fighting with herself as to whether she should explain herself to a mere soldier. She knows she is wrong but to admit that to someone beneath her would be lowering herself. She has him killed in the end in an attempt to block out her conscience. But obviously it doesn't work as she is left with more guilt and some serious thoughts shown by the lines "And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
The battle continued on "

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Asymmetry
03-22-2007

Rated 0 
I like ninehalo's idea of how this song is about a woman who likes men to fight for her. Then again, Suzanne herself claimed this song to be about power... although it's not hard to suggest it being power over men. =)

"The Queen and the Soldier is a strange song for me because it seems to work on a variety of levels. I still haven't figured that one out yet. I don't know what it means to me, yet. I feel a very strong sympathy with both characters. Obviously, I like the soldier better than the queen; I think most people do. I feel a very strong identification with both characters. Some people want to know if that's my idea of romance, which it certainly is not! I mean, I'm not crazy... in that way, anyway. To me, that was a song about power. It was a song about power and the misuse of power and how people hang on to it, no matter what, even if it means that they are ultimately unhappy and suffering because of it. Yeah, I'm sure I have something in mind, but I don't know what it is."
Generation Magazine, December 9 1986, Suzanne Vega Interview, by Allan Rousselle

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abaluka
07-03-2007

Rated -1 
my brother suggested that the queen was god. i think she's more like a pope, or maybe a combo of both, but definite;ly something religious.

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ccbubblegum
08-24-2007

Rated 0 
Gypsy_eyes: To the extent that it's that particular metaphor, I see it as being about having a very hard choice to make and choosing correctly at the cost of immediate personal indulgence.

Imagine that the ongoing battle is being fought for the good of her country on a macroscopic scale that really wouldn't be immediately obvious to a soldier. Would it really be feasible for a queen to dismiss a soldier and desert her post to be by his side? She may not have chosen to be born as royalty but does that mean she can just toss aside such a huge responsibility?

Looking at Asymmetry's quote from the author herself, tho, it seems I have it all backwards and the queen's persisting in an unjust war out of issues of national pride or something (and, realistically, that *is* the more likely scenario, isn't it?) but for whatever reason, that's how I see it with respect to the choice metaphor.

~

The first time I heard this song was in high school AP Literature when we were covering Victorian poetry and the theme of repression as expressed therein, so the message of this poem is strongest to me as it was presented in class. My teacher gave us the text of the lyrics as a poem without revealing its author or originating time period and then explained everything and played the song after we read and analyzed it. In the context of the unit, he interpreted it as a treatise on repression in the vein of "The Lady of Shallot" and similar poems we had read that semester. I have more to say on the details of that, but "it's about repression!!!" covers it pretty well so I won't belabor the point with a line-by-line rundown on all the symbolism or anything.

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raffishtenant2
02-23-2008

Rated 0 
I grew up with this song, which seems pretty much unrivaled in its potential for symbolic interpretation. These days, I kinda look at it in terms of the Iraq war. The soldier asks his commander, "Now will you tell me why?" In the end, she has no real answer except for "The terrorists will kill us otherwise," and/or "Because I say so," and whichever rationale you believe, that soldier is very much toast.

I enjoy delay's interpretation as well, and am fascinated by the fact that it's actually being used in AP Literature courses. Yes, this song is that good.

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!@#$%^&*()
10-03-2008

Rated 0 
i didnt read all of the other things poateds but most of them were just wrong

i can see how this could be a love song but sorry i dont believe it is

the song is on two levels
one in which it is as she says, a soldier confronting a queen about war
and the second in which the soldier (the queens, posibly suzanne vega's, conscience) confronts her via "knocking on the door"
killing of fighting is sending suggestions or advice to the queen to guide her morally.
the soldiers gave up and said i am not fighting for you any more.
going into her room with her tapestries red doesnt mean they went anywhere at all it means they ventured further into the colour of her mind and of her sub conscious.
he says i see now you are so very young
that means she is young, inexperienced and nieve all of which the soldiers was unaware of but the doesnt the amount of battles she has lost to the amount she has won (i've seen more battles lost than i have battles won)


he took her to the window to see
she new how it frightened her and she turned away and would not look at his face again

and this might just be the most trajic part of the song

Out in the distance her order was heard
And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word
And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
The battle continued on

it shows how she shun him and and fell back into old habbits but you know the thought of him, what he said and how she knew he was right will burn in the back of her mind for life.

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