In Neglect

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a picture of two individuals left to their own devices, a situation where others have been proven wrong about them. They find themselves in a quiet, perhaps overlooked, spot, a "wayside nook." There's a deliberate, almost performative quality to their current state, as they adopt a "mischievous, vagrant, seraphic look." This suggests a conscious effort to embody a certain image, perhaps one of carefree independence or even a touch of defiant artistry. The central tension seems to arise from the act of "try if we cannot feel forsaken." This isn't a passive state of being abandoned, but an active experiment. The narrator and their companion are testing the boundaries of their own emotional response, actively attempting to *not* feel the sting of neglect. It’s a defiant posture against the judgment or expectations of those who left them behind. The most striking aspect is the juxtaposition of their outward appearance and their internal experiment. The "mischievous, vagrant, seraphic look" is a complex facade. "Mischievous" and "vagrant" hint at a wildness or a lack of conventional belonging, while "seraphic" suggests an almost angelic or otherworldly detachment. This carefully curated look is employed specifically to test their feelings of being "forsaken," highlighting a sophisticated, almost theatrical, approach to managing their emotional reality. This writing is effective because it captures a specific, nuanced emotional state: the active, almost artistic, management of perceived abandonment. The lyrics don't just state they feel forsaken; they describe the deliberate performance and internal testing involved in confronting that possibility. The choice of words like "proved mistaken" and the deliberate adoption of a specific "look" ground the abstract feeling of neglect in tangible actions and observations, making the psychological drama palpable.