Deeper Layers of Meaning...
@RebeccaScarlett (2532)
Canada
November 25, 2010 6:41pm CST
This is a small example of how I overthink things.
There is a song I have heard many times, where one of the lines is: "and I miss you...like the deserts miss the rain."
On the surface, you would think, well, the deserts are pretty dry, they must miss rain a lot. So she misses her old lover a lot.
But then I think more deeply. How can you miss something you've never had? So if the deserts never have rain, they would not miss them at all, and the singer is being ironic, twisting words to say she does not miss her old lover at all. Maybe the deserts like being dry, and the once in a decade or so they do have rain they find it annoying! So the singer could be saying she doesn't miss her lover, and even if he came around she would not like it!
Of course, there are many deserts that used to have wetter conditions, thousands of years ago. We know that from fossil records.
So could the singer be saying that she misses an old lover like the deserts miss the rain they used to have thousands of years ago? Like it has been so long she barely remembers him, and the memory is so vague that she only knows it happened with her head (and not her heart) and there is only the faintest feeling of nostalgia?
So many layers to this simile!
What do you think? And do you ever overthink small things like this?
3 responses

@RebeccaScarlett (2532)
• Canada
26 Nov 10
Or that no matter how much he decided to love her, it would just roll off her back and she wouldn't feel it? See, this is a fun game!
@tkonlinevn (6427)
• Vietnam
26 Nov 10
I never think about this issue. But your idea is very interesting! However, I think that the memory is not vague. Because desert still need rain and I'm sure that she'll be happy if she has rain! So, the memory is not vague.
@RebeccaScarlett (2532)
• Canada
26 Nov 10
This is a fun conversation to me. There are as many interpretations as there are people!
@coffeeshot (3783)
• Australia
26 Nov 10
I always thought that it does rain in the desert but only occasionally. But yeah you do have a point- very good thinking!
Perhaps she is thinking about how long it has been with her lover.
I often spend time picking apart song lyrics to try to find their true meaning. I think too often people just sing along to songs and not really analyse what they mean. The again, most oft he music on commercial radio and TV doesn't really have much depth to it though!
But that is a good song- i haven't heard it in a long time!
@RebeccaScarlett (2532)
• Canada
26 Nov 10
I think it is a good example of how you never know what someone is really thinking when they write a song unless they decide to share. Metaphors and similes make poetry and song unique because different people will see different things in them -- meaning that sometimes art reflects the viewer/listener more than the artist!




