LyricMeaning

Colleen
Joanna Newsom

I'll tell it as I best know how, nAnd that's the way it was told to me: I nMust have been a thief or a whore, nThen surely was thrown overboard, nWhere, they say, nI came this way from the deep blue sea. nnIt picked me up and tossed me round. nI lost my shoes and tore my gown, nI forgot my name, nAnd drowned. nnThen woke up with the surf a - pounding; nIt seemed I had been run aground. nnWell they took me in and shod my feet nAnd taught me prayers for chastity nAnd said my name would be Colleen, and nI was blessed among all women, nTo have forgotten everything. nnAnd as the weeks and months ensued nI tried to make myself of use. nI tilled and planted, but could not produce - nnot root, nor leaf, nor flower, nor bean; Lord! nIt seemed I overwatered everything. nnAnd I hate the sight of that empty air, nlike stepping for a missing stair nand falling forth forever blindly: ncannot grab hold of anything! No, nNot I, most blessed among Colleens. nn--nnI dream some nights of a funny sea, nas soft as a newly born baby. nnIt cries for me pitifully! nAnd I dive for my child with a wildness in me, nand am so sweetly there received. nnBut last night came a different dream; na gray and sloping-shouldered thing nsaid What's cinched 'round your waist, Colleen? nis that my very own baleen? nNo! Have you forgotten everything? nnThis morning, 'round the cape at dawn, nsome travellers sailed into town nwith scraps for sale and the saddest songs nand a book of pictures, leather-bound, that nshowed a whale with a tusk a meter long. nnWell, I asked the man who showed it me, nWhat is the name of that strange beast? nHe said its name translated roughly to nHe-Who-Easily-Can-Curve-Himself-Against-The-Sky. nnAnd I am without words. nHe said, My lady looks perturbed. n(the light is in your eyes, Colleen.) nI said, Whatever can you mean? nHe leaned in and said, nYou ain't forgotten everything. nn-- nnYou dare to speak a lady's name? nHe said, My lady is mistaken. nI would not speak your name in this place; nand if I were to try then the wind - I swear - nwould rise, to tear you clean from me without a trace. nnHave you come, then, to rescue me? nHe laughed and said, from what, 'Colleen'? nYou dried and dressed most willingly. nyou corseted, and caught the dread disease nby which one comes to know such peace. nnWell, it's true that I came to know such things as nthe laws which govern property nand herbs to feed the babes that wean, nand the welting weight for every season; nbut still nI don't know any goddamned Colleen. nnThen dive down there with the lights to lead nthat seem to shine from everything - ndown to the bottom of the deep blue sea; ndown where your heart beats so slow, nand you never in your life have felt so free. nWill you come down there with me? nDown were our bodies start to seem like nartifacts of some strange dream, nwhich afterwards you can't decipher, nand so, soon, have forgotten nEverything. n


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Lyrics by Joanna Newsom

  Angel   Autumn   Baby Birch   Baby Birch   Be a Woman   Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes   Cosmia   Does Not Suffice   Easy   Emily   Erin   Esame   Esme   Flying a Kite   Go Long   Good Intentions Paving Company   Have One On Me   In California   Jackrabbits   Kingfisher   Little Wing   Monkey & Bear   No Provenance   Occident   On A Good Day   Only Skin   Ribbon Bows   Ring the Living Bell   Sapokanikan   Sawdust and Diamonds   Soft as Chalk   The Fray   Three Little Babes (Traditional cover)   Untitled (Love You, Again)   Untitled (Ribbon Bows)   What We Have Known   Yarn and Glue   You and Me, Bess

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