Midlake – Chasing After Deer

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  General Comment:Very simple lyrics with a beautiful double layered meaning to it. The simplified image of someone chasing after a deer which leads to its death project the uncontrolable. This can either be love (which 90% of the people always interpret) or as Cyberghost pointed out so well a dream, no matter what kind. The deer is your goal, this could either be a person you love or a goal that you try to accomplish, while the sea and the woods are the setting, which ultimately cannot be controlled. This setting can be positive (For myself I must remind, That the woods are usually kind) or negative (but the sea is not mine). And in case of this song it ends in a tragic. Very simplistic song both instrumental as lyrical but very beautiful once you take your time for it.

  Flag XeeGenon December 05, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I think it's about somebody who left chasing their dream "deer"
  
  In the first and second verses the author says that he missed this person when she/he came to visit and now that person is once again gone chasing after "deer" and he (the author) fears for this person.
  
  In the third and forth verses he describes these fears a bit saying how hard it is to chase your dreams and more often than not you find yourself lagging behind.
  
  When he says "the sea isn't mine" he means he cannot help or advise this person across the sea, for he does not know how things are there, compared to things in his own woods; the sea represents distance.
  
  The fifth verse can be interpreted as following a dream so far that it twists into something that you never wanted in the first place or lagging so far behind that your dream is lost.

  Flag Cyberghoston September 29, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I appologize, st pager, I wasn't trying to reply only to you. I meant to just leave a general comment, but clicked "post reply" instead. :)

  Flag TheCuriousCaseOfLaurieLeonieon January 17, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I think this song has a much simpler meaning.. The lyrics on this album in general lend themselves to Tim Smith's knowledge and deep interest in history. Less complex characters than you would associate with modern people. Metaphors aside, as it's possible to find numerous. This song is simply about hunter-gatherer's ("the woods are usually kind")before humans were complex enough creatures to develop tools/weapons and how difficult survival must have been. With that in mind no tools/weapons or methods for fishing either as this came later to early humans("The sea is not mine").

  Flag st_pageron April 24, 2008   Link

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    After reading these comments, I began to think that maybe when the narrator says "the sea is not mine," he is meaning that he should not be blamed, because he did not cause the deer, or the love she chased, to demolish itself.
    To me, this song sort of sounds like a a tragic story about a woman who chases after unattainable loves, when in fact, someone who loves her very much is always there for her, but she doesn't see it.

    Flag TheCuriousCaseOfLaurieLeonieon January 17, 2009  
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  General Comment:"And you are sad
  But the sea is not mine"
  
  The 'deer' that we chase falls in to the sea, and then there is never going to be a chance to have it again.
  To me, it feels like all of the natural imagery implies that sometimes, this is just the way that things happen. These possibilities we see in other 'deer' get swollowed up by the 'sea', which to me is one of the most powerful examples of such vast, raw nature. When the narrator says he must remind himself that "the sea is not mine", to me it is a reassurance he tells himself or to others, to let them know that though they may be sad, it was not their fault, because things just happen that way sometimes.

  Flag Unicycler0on November 24, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:The whole part about "but the sea is not mine" means to me in interpretation that the love he cannot have is something he has to deal with. He's basically accepting the fact that the sea(his love for whoever) is not his, but someone elses.

  Flag LoneRideron July 27, 2007   Link

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    i agree.
    
    very well put :)

    Flag thecutlerydrawon October 02, 2009  
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  General Comment:what do you think the line "but the sea is not mine" means? i feel like that line is important to the idea of the whole song.

  Flag thewinepressson February 25, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:Wow.. the guitar tone in this song blows me away. And the lyrics, geez. It seems to me like it'd be about not getting upset about chasing after a love you can't have. Kinda a creepy analogy. You want to get closer to someone and they go into panic mode and even when you give up they don't know it, and the detatch themselves with anything that has to do with you. Falling off a cliff into the sea. Who knows?

  Flag jukeapples24on February 24, 2007   Link

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