Is This Desire?

the name joe(seph) is mentioned in the album in previous songs; those songs being, "the garden," and "perfect day, elise."

dawn is also said in, "electric light," but it's ambiguous as to whether dawn is a girl or a time of day.

perhaps those two are recurring themes that some how meet up at the end.

i think that the sylvan imagery/natural setting is a metaphor. the characters desire each other in a primative way; the fact that they're building a fire, that they're in trees, walking on sunsets, barefoot, etc, helps to show the carnical nature of their desire for each other.

dawn is nervous about her relations with joe (again, the romantic idea that women wish to civilize men and their feelings.). as lord pembroke said, dawn becomes nervous when they go to the forest. she's not as willing to embrace her carnal desire for joe, but she was willing enough to go to the forest in the first place. dawn tries to distract joe by building a fire with him. perhaps the building of a fire represents that she wants her feelings for joe to build up to the point where they're flaming with passion. her fire had been cooled once they arrived in the woods, meaning that she was passionate and willing until she was actually in the situation. she needs things to be heated up again before she goes all out. i assume that dawn is a virgin, because she's young and nervous about the concept of sex.

joe, however, is already walking on the sunsets and feeling like a king. he tells her that he isn't scared. if we are to believe that this joe is the same joe as the one in, "the garden," and, "a perfect day, elise," we've seen that his heart has been kicked around before. in both songs, the character of joe has given all of himself to somebody that later turns him away. in, "the garden," he is offered gold and mountains for his companionship, only to find nothing in the end. in, "a perfect day, elise," he sleeps with a girl, but after the act, she turns her back to him and tells him to never return to her. this upsets him deeply. he lets himself into her room and prays for her love. joe seems to fall in love quickly, and he winds up playing the role of the jilted lover. in this song, we're finally shown his method of seduction and his need for physical pleasure to make him whole.

both of them, however, are brought to the same questions of desire and it's significance. joe and dawn seem to wonder if the liason was worth the changes that would come as a result. joe wonders if all the suffering that he bears after he sleeps with another is worth the pleasure. perhaps it was bad sex, to put it bluntly, that makes them doubt the expirience. they expected pleasure, and may have been let down. or, perhaps they were looking for some sort of uplifting power in their union, and found nothing. either way, they're doubting themselves, the act itself, and each other.

brilliant song. sorry about the length.