This is one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard. I listened to it for a long time, and I had no clue what it was. I looked it up on the web about a month ago because it was bugging the crap out of me. Yes, it is for/about Anne Sexton. This is what I got from it:
Anne Sexton was sexually abused by her parents. She was unstable as a child and it only got worse as she grew up. "The dreams made solid and the dreams made real", "all of the buildings and all of the cars were once just a dream in somebody's head" refers to her feeling like her dreams will never come true. 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. "She pictures the soul with no leak at the seam" refers to her feeling like there was something missing in her life. 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." "Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey" refers to her looking for mercy in her house in the "suburbs." her psychiatrist encouraged her to write poems to get her anger and sadness out o her system, and it turned out to be what really kept her going in life. The words of her poem "support like bone" in the midst of all the pain in her life. She said in her poem Mercy Street 45 that she was always looking for the street sign... " 'Swear they moved that sign." "Pulling out the papers from the drawers that slide mooth, tugging at the darkness, word upon word"... she is shuffling through her papers trying to find a black sheet, and she jots down her dark feelings. It said in the biography that I took at 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. 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. "Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips, of kissing Mary's lips"...Mary is Anne Sexton's mother. The biography said that she was always afraid of her parents abandonning her, so she would always shake... "the tremble in the hips." In the second verse, Peter mentions "the steam."
After her thrid suicide attempt, Anne finally died. She was killed by carbon monoxide in her home. Carbon monoxide is invisible to the naked eye, but steam and carbon monoxide are both gases.
Could it be that when the song says: " she pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam, she pictures a soul with no leak at the seam" It means that she thinks that even though she is suicidal and she knows it, she thinks it is ok to commit suicide and her soul will not suffer the eternal consequences "with no leak" that her soul will remain intact because she is the victim of her situation and of what her parents did to her?????
Also; the paragraph about "pale green and gray, the suburbs, the light of day, so alive...
Could it be that when the song says: " she pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam, she pictures a soul with no leak at the seam" It means that she thinks that even though she is suicidal and she knows it, she thinks it is ok to commit suicide and her soul will not suffer the eternal consequences "with no leak" that her soul will remain intact because she is the victim of her situation and of what her parents did to her?????
Also; the paragraph about "pale green and gray, the suburbs, the light of day, so alive and alone words support like bone" means that she doesn´t feel safe or at peace at all and writing is definitely what keeps her from breaking down and falling out of this world.
I think that the "mercy street" actually never existed, it is the ideal place or home that she yerns she had grown up in. Mercy street is the place were she can be happy, innocent and normal, wearing her inside out being this her normal childhood she didn´t get. A place were she feels safe in her loving and caring father´s arms, BUT they moved the sign because she can´t find what she never had. If you think this through It´s so sad........
please let me know if this makes any sense to anyone jejeje
Gabriel himself was abused as a kid by some school mates, which is, I’m sure, easier to live with than being abused by your own parents, but a tough situation anyway; he talked about it candidly in a 2006 TED talk. I guess he feels a strong identification with Sexton, so no wonder he wrote a song about her.
Gabriel himself was abused as a kid by some school mates, which is, I’m sure, easier to live with than being abused by your own parents, but a tough situation anyway; he talked about it candidly in a 2006 TED talk. I guess he feels a strong identification with Sexton, so no wonder he wrote a song about her.
This is one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard. I listened to it for a long time, and I had no clue what it was. I looked it up on the web about a month ago because it was bugging the crap out of me. Yes, it is for/about Anne Sexton. This is what I got from it:
Anne Sexton was sexually abused by her parents. She was unstable as a child and it only got worse as she grew up. "The dreams made solid and the dreams made real", "all of the buildings and all of the cars were once just a dream in somebody's head" refers to her feeling like her dreams will never come true. 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. "She pictures the soul with no leak at the seam" refers to her feeling like there was something missing in her life. 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." "Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey" refers to her looking for mercy in her house in the "suburbs." her psychiatrist encouraged her to write poems to get her anger and sadness out o her system, and it turned out to be what really kept her going in life. The words of her poem "support like bone" in the midst of all the pain in her life. She said in her poem Mercy Street 45 that she was always looking for the street sign... " 'Swear they moved that sign." "Pulling out the papers from the drawers that slide mooth, tugging at the darkness, word upon word"... she is shuffling through her papers trying to find a black sheet, and she jots down her dark feelings. It said in the biography that I took at 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. 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. "Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips, of kissing Mary's lips"...Mary is Anne Sexton's mother. The biography said that she was always afraid of her parents abandonning her, so she would always shake... "the tremble in the hips." In the second verse, Peter mentions "the steam." After her thrid suicide attempt, Anne finally died. She was killed by carbon monoxide in her home. Carbon monoxide is invisible to the naked eye, but steam and carbon monoxide are both gases.
Well, that is what I think the story is about.
-Miranda
Could it be that when the song says: " she pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam, she pictures a soul with no leak at the seam" It means that she thinks that even though she is suicidal and she knows it, she thinks it is ok to commit suicide and her soul will not suffer the eternal consequences "with no leak" that her soul will remain intact because she is the victim of her situation and of what her parents did to her????? Also; the paragraph about "pale green and gray, the suburbs, the light of day, so alive...
Could it be that when the song says: " she pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam, she pictures a soul with no leak at the seam" It means that she thinks that even though she is suicidal and she knows it, she thinks it is ok to commit suicide and her soul will not suffer the eternal consequences "with no leak" that her soul will remain intact because she is the victim of her situation and of what her parents did to her????? Also; the paragraph about "pale green and gray, the suburbs, the light of day, so alive and alone words support like bone" means that she doesn´t feel safe or at peace at all and writing is definitely what keeps her from breaking down and falling out of this world. I think that the "mercy street" actually never existed, it is the ideal place or home that she yerns she had grown up in. Mercy street is the place were she can be happy, innocent and normal, wearing her inside out being this her normal childhood she didn´t get. A place were she feels safe in her loving and caring father´s arms, BUT they moved the sign because she can´t find what she never had. If you think this through It´s so sad........
please let me know if this makes any sense to anyone jejeje
Wow Miranda, you have nailed that. Great writing too. Had to signup to tell you that!
Wow Miranda, you have nailed that. Great writing too. Had to signup to tell you that!
I've been carrying around about half of that meaning with me for years, thanks for lighting up the even darker parts.
I've been carrying around about half of that meaning with me for years, thanks for lighting up the even darker parts.
You reviewed any more Gabriel? Might take a look
You reviewed any more Gabriel? Might take a look
Gabriel himself was abused as a kid by some school mates, which is, I’m sure, easier to live with than being abused by your own parents, but a tough situation anyway; he talked about it candidly in a 2006 TED talk. I guess he feels a strong identification with Sexton, so no wonder he wrote a song about her.
Gabriel himself was abused as a kid by some school mates, which is, I’m sure, easier to live with than being abused by your own parents, but a tough situation anyway; he talked about it candidly in a 2006 TED talk. I guess he feels a strong identification with Sexton, so no wonder he wrote a song about her.