Love everywhere,
Exploding, maims and blinds,
A living dance upon dead minds,
Love everywhere,
Exploding, maims and blinds,
A living dance upon dead minds

But surely does not forget (perish),
Sleep, cannot be photographed(measured)
Disdains the trivial labeling of punctual brains,
But surely does not forget (perish),
Sleep, cannot be photographed (measured)
Disdains the trivial labeling of punctual brains,

Why its love;
But at the earliest spear
Of sun
Perfectly should disappear
Who wields a poem huger than the grave?
Who wields a poem huger than the grave?
Who wields a poem huger than the grave?
Who wields a poem huger than the grave?
But surely does not forget (perish),
Sleep, cannot be photographed (measured)
Disdains the trivial labeling of punctual brains,
But surely does not forget (perish),
Sleep, cannot be photographed (measured)
Disdains the trivial labeling of punctual brains,

But surely does not forget (perish),
Sleep, cannot be photographed (measured)
Disdains the trivial labeling of punctual brains,
But surely does not forget (perish),
Sleep, cannot be photographed (measured)
Disdains the trivial labeling of punctual brains



Lyrics submitted by Second Self

Track duration: 03:33

"A Living Dance Upon Dead Minds" as written by Edward Carrington Breckenridge, James Riley Breckenridge, Dustin Michael Kensrue, Teppei Teranishi

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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A Living Dance Upon Dead Minds song meanings
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32 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment:"disdains the trivial labeling of punctual brains"


    this means that we should not try to "label" love in a punctual way, or in other terms, we should not try to describe love, as it is beyond common comprehension

    it is NOT talking about labeling our brains, but actually saying we should not try to "label" love with our "punctual brains"
    Flag brooks450on December 01, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Seeing as this song borrows entirely from E.E. Cummings' poem, I am choosing to just analyze the poem rather than the song.

    I think the poem is an argument against the tendency to use the left side of the brain to validate everything. The left side of the brain is used for sorting through things analytically, and logically, so to speak. It focuses more heavily on science rather than arts and emotion.

    I think Cummings is implying that there is more to it than that, that we need rely on emotion and the right side of the brain at times, or at least more frequently. And then she goes on to carry this even further. She applies it to love. She disdains "the trivial labeling of punctual brains." Or in other words, she considers it beneath her to regard the human mind as simply a series of chemical reactions and nerves. And by applying this to love, she urges people not to be to haughtily scientific when it comes to things like that.

    You know, it is kind of ironic that I am explaining this using evidence the relies heavily on science. But, it just goes to further prove the point Cumming is trying to make.
    Flag sabioon October 04, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Straight from the insert from The Illusion Of Safety CD:

    "a living dance upon dead minds*

    *respectfully borrowed excerpts from a poem by e.e. cummings. in an experiment to look on them with different eyes[ears]"
    Flag DuFF234on April 05, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:When EE Cummings said "love everywhere, explolding maims and blinds(but surely does not forget, perish) he is transending the idea of the world and how its full of love, eventho it sometimes causes conflict (maims) and blinds peoples perception when it comes to making decsisons.Yet no matter how bad it may see, love is always there (sure does not forget, perish).....
    He then proceeds to say "Sleep cannot be photographed, Measured"...by this he means our dreams cannot be photographed, our creativity as humans cannot be measured in a scholarlly sense, for it is infantant as the vastness of outerspace.....
    he then says "disdains the trivial labelling of punctual brains" which to me means....Scorn the idea of labeling a person with a sharp brain, as we all are creative beings in one sense or another.
    ....as for "who wields a poem huger than the grave?"....i belive that means long after our mortal bodies have died, our creativity has the possibility to be everlasting...through the forms of art, lingustics or music ect...
    Flag Logannoon September 19, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I agree with babyevilchild999 that many people can get different thoughts and feelings out of this song. it one of the many reasons why thrice is a great band, the music and lyrics are heavily detailed and layered.I think the part " A living dance upon dead minds" could be that we stand up on the shoulders of the people before us and waste it away with entertainment , instead of using the knowledge gained by our ancesters to improve. It may also mean that we put up a facade and we pretend to be happy,smart or creative but under it we are empty or dead.anougther line I think may refer to people in the past is "who wields a poem huger than the grave" dead poets like edgar allen poe wrote poems that have remained fairly known past their death.
    Flag bluephoenixon August 28, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i agree with babyevilchild999 that its about creativity but for different reasons. consider "sleep, cannot be photographed" theres no replacment for some things a photograph is to remind someone of something but its not as good as the real thing. you cant replace things like love or creativity. whether you beleive the song is about creativity or not bear with me.

    "why its love
    but at the earliest spear
    of sun
    perfectly should disappear"

    you love the feeling of creating something new and unique but the sun destroys it. consider the sun represents reason or logic. Thrice refers to the concept of reason a lot.

    "disdains the trivial labeling of punctual brains"

    people try to reason things that can't be reasoned some things cant be explained through logic like a persons mind and creativity.
    Flag Lifeless2112on July 27, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:what i like about thrice is, like all good art, their music is open for interpretation...which is why so many people get so many different feelings from it...i feel that this song is talking about creativity...(hence a living dance upon dead minds) dead minds being those who don't use them or are not creative...i think thrice and ee cummings see love as the catalyst for creative (either the obtaining of it, lose of it, or fascination with it) hence the opening lines..."love everywhere exploding"(which is the what it kind of feels like when you're in love), "maims"(which it can do to you when you lose it), and "blinds" (which happens when you're extemely fascinated with it)...the line that makes this idea that its about creativity solid or viable is the line saying "who weilds a poem more huger than the grave," meaning if you leave behind something extremely creative it will make you live long pass the grave. as for the lines "but surely...punctual brains" the way i see it is that one cannot just forget about love,hence the line "but surely does not forget," and poets/artist can make the ordinary extraordinary "sleep, cannot be photographed," and creative people/minds hate boundaries hence their "disdain of labeling of punctual brains" punctual being those who have to come to sort of conculsion. as for "why it's love...disappear" lines i think this is an expression of how short a time you have to be creative...the second the sun shows up its gone...well thats my explanation...and if you don't like well thats fine...but you know what...try to look beyond what everyone else thinks
    Flag babyevilchild999on July 04, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i'd have to disagree, an possibly incorrectly...i dont know what each author meant by it, but the song at least sounds to me like a kind of biting, depressing tone...

    a living dance upon dead minds? seems to me to mean an idea that is still very much still worshipped by people who aren't necessarily the smartest of us.

    something that explodes, maims, and blinds, is not good. love is this thing that we believe to HELP us, to be the one thing we can always look to happily...but maybe all of this so-called 'love' is really what's killing us

    i think it should be written
    why it's "love"
    but at the earliest spear
    of sun
    perfectly should disappear

    i use the quotes to mean that its is CALLED love, but as soon as true light is shone upon it, it is revealed to be empty, meaningless, not real.

    as for the other two parts, i'm kinda lost...i think i'd have to stare at the words a lot longer than i'm willing to do at 1:36 on a school night with a paper yet to do...
    Flag xstrifeon March 02, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Dance usually is associated with celebration. So the title could imply the living celebrating or even flaunting their life. But dead *minds*?

    I don't know too much by way of the lyrics, there aren't many unique lines. I'd have to take a look at the poem... I like C.S. Lewis... but ee Cummings is very often way over my head...

    Also -- liebherk, for future reference 'Puntual' means something more along the lines of 'timely' and not so much 'thinking quickly'.
    '...distains the trivial labeling of puntual brains' literally seems to signify that something discredits the already pointly classification of timely minds
    Flag Zygexon February 22, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:seems to me the first part describes love as a volatile thing, which can cause explosions at any minute. Maybe it's just a coincedence, (I doubt it) but notice how "mines" sounds so much similar to "minds." An example comes to mind of a pack of bullies "dancing" (beating up on) a "dead mind" (a mentally retarded kid). Someone sees this, and out of love for their fellow man, "explodes" and puts the bullies to justice.

    "disdains the trivial labeling of punctual brains"

    I'm not sure, but it could have something to do with scientists trying to classify a really smart person (punctual brain; they can solve problems or the like really fast or something) or someone with an extraordinary or miraculous ability into something that just doesn't fit them; they're way too complex to be described like that.

    Notice that it talks about dancing on "dead" minds and later about death and the grave. Dancing on graves? I dunno. One thing I think, though, is that the "poem huger than the grave" is love. Who wields love? Could it have something to do with God (from the Christia perspective, like Dustin [although he didn't write it]) is described as the essence of love, or is it that every human being loves something or someone?

    It just occured to me that that's just the song... I might try to analyze the actual poem later.
    Flag liebherkon February 13, 2005   Link

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