Song Meaning
These lyrics paint a stark picture of a princess held captive by her father in a tower. A "black spider" weaving its threads immediately establishes a sense of entrapment. Her mother's pleas were refused, and on "bolt and lock, love was shattered." The scene is one of profound isolation and despair.
The central tension lies in the princess's agonizing, relentless wait. She weeps, writes letters for support, and endures the slow passage of time, as the refrain emphasizes: "All week she waits / Every hour every minute." The years catch up to her, and the lyrics suggest fate intervenes with an "angel shot its arrows." Her wounds, both physical and emotional, "will not heal," leaving behind only a letter, a testament to her futile struggle.
A crucial shift in perspective occurs in the final narrative stanza. The lyrics move from an external observation to a first-person narrator, who feels a brief flicker of hope from a "falling star." This narrator then discovers the lock broken, only to find the princess's "heart silenced," her head slumped. This sudden, personal encounter with her death makes the tragedy immediate and devastating.
Ultimately, these lyrics are effective because they juxtapose the princess's endless longing with the crushing finality of her death. The vivid imagery of confinement, the poignant repetition of her waiting, and the tragic irony of freedom arriving too late create a deeply moving narrative about irreversible loss and the futility of hope against an unyielding fate.