Desert Places

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a stark picture of encroaching winter and a deep, internal solitude. Snow falls "fast, oh, fast" over a landscape where only "a few weeds and stubble showing last," suggesting a world being covered and simplified. This external scene mirrors an internal state, where "all animals are smothered in their lairs," implying a cessation of life or activity, and the narrator feels "too absent-spirited to count" their own loneliness. The central tension arises from the narrator's relationship with this pervasive loneliness. It's not just a passive state; it's an active force that "includes me unawares." The lyrics suggest this loneliness is self-perpetuating, destined to become "more lonely ere it will be less," leading to a "blanker whiteness" with "no expression, nothing to express." This is a profound sense of emptiness, a void that seems to absorb all potential feeling or meaning. The most striking aspect is the turn in the final lines. The narrator dismisses the external "empty spaces / Between stars" as a source of fear, stating, "They cannot scare me." This is because the true source of dread is far closer and more potent: "I have it in me so much nearer home / To scare myself with my own desert places." This reveals that the external landscape of snow and emptiness is a reflection of an internal, self-generated desolation. This writing is effective because it grounds abstract feelings of loneliness in concrete, sensory imagery of winter's advance. The repetition of "lonely" and the stark contrast between the external "empty spaces" and the internal "desert places" create a powerful sense of inescapable self-awareness. The final lines deliver a chilling punch, re-framing the source of fear not as the vast unknown, but as the intimate, terrifying landscape within oneself.