My personal interpretation is somewhat (entirely, really) different than everyone else’s, apparently. The way I see it, the narrator is an army man, and is obviously romantically involved with one of the other men in his regiment. The song just doesn’t make any sense to me, otherwise. The two get up to something in a carnival/fairground, and the tawny gypsy girl sees them from where she is sleeping and alerts the authorities, who, naturally, come running and arrest the two (I suppose they’re in some place/time where their actions would illicit such a reaction). The other boy lied, and now our narrator is fulfilling the consequences; maybe he is in jail or somewhere similar, being punished, and thinking about how the fellow he loved (or at least trusted) betrayed him. Or perhaps the other boy lied and took it upon himself, and the narrator is remembering his eyes as shiny, or perhaps visiting him in his penitentiary or something [I am sure you all get the idea].
As well, it does not make sense that the narrator would switch subjects from his brother-at-arms to the gypsy girl halfway through the third verse. He begins the stanza by discussing the girl, but then doesn’t seem to mention her again.
I find it funny that it never occurred to me that this could’ve been his relationship with the girl, or any girl in general. It just seems like such a strange way to go about phrasing it, if that is indeed the intention of the song.
Maybe I’m just thinking about it too literally. Either way, it’s my point of view and I like it. Cheers!
My personal interpretation is somewhat (entirely, really) different than everyone else’s, apparently. The way I see it, the narrator is an army man, and is obviously romantically involved with one of the other men in his regiment. The song just doesn’t make any sense to me, otherwise. The two get up to something in a carnival/fairground, and the tawny gypsy girl sees them from where she is sleeping and alerts the authorities, who, naturally, come running and arrest the two (I suppose they’re in some place/time where their actions would illicit such a reaction). The other boy lied, and now our narrator is fulfilling the consequences; maybe he is in jail or somewhere similar, being punished, and thinking about how the fellow he loved (or at least trusted) betrayed him. Or perhaps the other boy lied and took it upon himself, and the narrator is remembering his eyes as shiny, or perhaps visiting him in his penitentiary or something [I am sure you all get the idea].
As well, it does not make sense that the narrator would switch subjects from his brother-at-arms to the gypsy girl halfway through the third verse. He begins the stanza by discussing the girl, but then doesn’t seem to mention her again.
I find it funny that it never occurred to me that this could’ve been his relationship with the girl, or any girl in general. It just seems like such a strange way to go about phrasing it, if that is indeed the intention of the song.
Maybe I’m just thinking about it too literally. Either way, it’s my point of view and I like it. Cheers!