Break it down by stanza, and you can see the story form...
1st - he refers to "an old time movie" which says to me "silent film" for whatever reason. He talks about being shackled in chains in a dark and impenetrable place, stuck by a wishing well, where she can't see him... he feels trapped, invisible, and muted with his wishes of what their relationship could be, or could have been, and she doesn't recognize, nor wants to recognize, what his desires.
2nd - he refers to "paperback novel, the kind that drugstores sell"; this makes me think of harlequin romance novels. When the climax of the novel comes, and the hero is supposed to come in and save the day, sweep her off her feet, he has failed somehow... He sees that she is expecting their relationship to be like a romance novel, and he hasn't lived up to her fantasy, so she no longer wants him or their relationship anymore (she won't pick up the book again).
3rd - this continues vaguely from the last - the 3 way script is him, her, and the third is her fantasy version of him. he gets burned in it because she would rather be with the imagined fantasy him instead of the real him. He doesn't know where it all went wrong, but neither of them are in love anymore, and he can't get it back.
4th - the reprise of the first, except he states that this time, instead of going on forever like the ghost, the story is ending. He never thought he could fall so far out of love and is just trying to understand why and where it all fell apart.
On a more personal note, I love Gordon Lightfoot and have since my youth (I'm 26), and although there are songs of his that I like better, I still absolutely love this song.
Break it down by stanza, and you can see the story form...
1st - he refers to "an old time movie" which says to me "silent film" for whatever reason. He talks about being shackled in chains in a dark and impenetrable place, stuck by a wishing well, where she can't see him... he feels trapped, invisible, and muted with his wishes of what their relationship could be, or could have been, and she doesn't recognize, nor wants to recognize, what his desires.
2nd - he refers to "paperback novel, the kind that drugstores sell"; this makes me think of harlequin romance novels. When the climax of the novel comes, and the hero is supposed to come in and save the day, sweep her off her feet, he has failed somehow... He sees that she is expecting their relationship to be like a romance novel, and he hasn't lived up to her fantasy, so she no longer wants him or their relationship anymore (she won't pick up the book again).
3rd - this continues vaguely from the last - the 3 way script is him, her, and the third is her fantasy version of him. he gets burned in it because she would rather be with the imagined fantasy him instead of the real him. He doesn't know where it all went wrong, but neither of them are in love anymore, and he can't get it back.
4th - the reprise of the first, except he states that this time, instead of going on forever like the ghost, the story is ending. He never thought he could fall so far out of love and is just trying to understand why and where it all fell apart.
On a more personal note, I love Gordon Lightfoot and have since my youth (I'm 26), and although there are songs of his that I like better, I still absolutely love this song.