Winter

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a stark, wintry landscape that mirrors an internal state of emotional desolation. Images of "two horses" and "two swans" initially suggest a natural, perhaps even romantic, scene, but the "wind blows over / A waste of thistles" quickly grounds it in a feeling of barrenness. This external environment seems to directly influence the narrator's inner world, where "thoughts are children / With uneasy faces" that "awake and rise / From buried places." The central tension lies in the contrast between past vitality and present defeat. The "line of a swan" becomes a metaphor for the "cold of winter," while "each horse like a passion / Long since defeated" embodies a sense of lost drive. These images "invade / My cloaked-up mind," suggesting a struggle against encroaching melancholy that loosens "memory's brooch of faces," implying a fading connection to past selves or experiences. The most striking craft element is the persistent comparison of "men" to "thistles," both "crowded" and "shrivelled." This imagery, particularly the repetition of "crowded like men" and "crowding like thistles," emphasizes a sense of shared, unproductive existence in a "fruitless place." Yet, amidst this bleakness, a surprising turn occurs: "miracles / Exhume in each face / Strong silken seed," suggesting an enduring, internal resilience or potential that defies the "static / Gold winter sun."