“Climbing the hill within the deafening wind”

Song Meaning

The lyrics present a stark contrast between an almost mythic ascent and a bleak, urban descent. The initial climb is depicted with visceral imagery: blood unfurling, echoing like a horn, and reaching a summit under shining trees. This powerful, almost spiritual journey culminates in a desire for complete surrender, to be an "instrument sharply stringed" for the world's music. It’s a moment of profound, if unsettling, self-abnegation. This ecstatic surrender, however, is immediately juxtaposed with a return to a grimy reality. The "deafening wind" of the climb becomes the "rain and stone places" of the street. The vibrant, almost heroic imagery of the ascent dissolves into "ancient sadness" and "hurrying and troubled faces." The vulnerability of "girls' vulnerable feet" and the "heart in its own endless silence kneeling" paint a picture of quiet, internal suffering. The most striking craft element is the dramatic shift in perspective and tone. The first stanza uses elevated, almost epic language to describe an internal or spiritual struggle, culminating in a radical acceptance of being played by external forces. The second stanza grounds this aspiration in a mundane, melancholic present, where the "music" is replaced by "sadness" and the "shining trees" by "stone places." This lyrical structure powerfully conveys the difficulty of maintaining an elevated ideal in the face of everyday hardship. The initial, almost ecstatic submission to a higher purpose is shown to be fragile, unable to fully overcome the persistent, "ancient sadness" of the mundane world. The poem leaves the listener with the lingering tension between the desire for transcendent surrender and the inescapable reality of quiet, personal desolation.