Paige Young

oh so many metaphors in this song.

So – for starters I want to talk about the Poem Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

…The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God’s name.

It ate the food it ne’er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner’s hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.’

‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look’st thou so?’—With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.

Fast forward to part 2 of the poem

…Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.
‘Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
‘Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!

All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

Immediately when I heard this song, I thought about this poem I studied in High School. The idea of the Albatross Is it brings warning to harder days ahead. It is a legend that the Albatross is a protector of sailors in the sea. It brought the rain and fog — allowing the sailors to not overheat, and collect water to survive. It brought winds to the sails, and was a gift from God. But after the man shoots the Albatross, harder days comes. The sun becomes overbearing, the wind ceases and their ship cannot move. No wind, no rain, and the ship idles. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
It’s actually quite a long poem and has several parts to it. You can read it here.

Lyrical Breakdown

Wise men once said
“Wild winds are death to the candle”
A rose by any other name is a scandal

A fragile thing is put in jeopardy.
The rose line is a reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet where Juliet tells Romeo “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet? But she is using this line to show the hidden layers of the rose. Something we expect, turns out not to be.

Cautions issued, he stood
Shooting the messengers
They tried to warn him about her

These lines definitely have to relate to the poem I’ve placed above. The sailors believed that the Albatross was causing the bad luck they were having, but it was only warning them about worse days to come. And after he shot the messenger [the albatross], things only got worse. This relates to the fall she took and pain she endured when everyone ‘canceled’ her, after she had said she was set up. The public shot her down, but would learn in the end she wasn’t the problem.
She also relates this same idea in the song Cassandra. There are really 3 songs on this album that are about this situation. However, this song also relates to her fortnight relationship – which you will see unravel throughout the lyrics in this song.

Cross your thoughtless heart
Only liquor anoints you
She’s the albatross
She is here to destroy you

Cross my heart and hope to die, which isn’t thinking rationally because it has been intoxicated with something that alters your thoughts. She’s the albatross, instead of warning you, she is here to destroy you. We will get to the reference of liquor later in the song.

Wise men once said
“One bad seed kills the garden”
“One less temptress
One less dagger to sharpen”

Mad Woman. Cassandra. Making women the target of this hate. Blaming the women, the sirens, from the warnings, the distractions, instead of the men falling to these visuals or warnings. [Or ignoring them]

Locked me up in towers
But I’d visit in your dreams
And they tried to warn you about me

Stolen lullabies you hear in your sleep. Lock up the damsel in distress, but if you lock her up, she’ll haunt you leapin’ from the gallows, ya? They tried to warn you about me. These lines do make me think about Blank Space, and Who’s afraid of little ol me? The media, the voices from the exterior, being the louder voices without reason.

Cross your thoughtless heart
Only liquor anoints you
She’s the albatross
She is here to destroy you
Devils that you know
Raise worse hell than a stranger
She’s the death you chose
You’re in terrible danger

I’m a mess, but I’m the mess that you wanted. She places herself as the danger, that will raise hell – the people you know will betray you – but remember, she’s the albatross, she is just here to warn you, not to hurt you.

And when that sky rains fire on you
And you’re persona non grata
I’ll tell you how I’ve been there too
And that none of it matters

When the consequences and hell falls down on you – your the unwanted person [maybe in the room, in society?] I see this as karma. She was the one that was warning and putting out information that was true but she was just the messenger. But when the roles reverse, and you don’t clear your history with me, you will be the odd man out – the albatross will tell you that is exactly how she felt and where she was – but it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done, and this person will focus on themselves and how they have fallen to become the victim now.

Wise men once read fake news
And they believed it

Wise men told people one bad seed ruins the garden, killing the temptress will get rid of the problem, but we can allude that all of this was fake news. They read the news, and believed all of it, they read these ‘theories’ and fell to them.

Jackals raised their hackles

The jackal was therefore connected to death or the underworld. Seeing a jackal was considered a warning that the person, or someone close to them, was in danger. In the Christian Bible the jackal is mentioned over a dozen times as a symbol of abandonment, loneliness, and desolation.
Taylor does do a bit of biblical references in this album. The albatross is more of a legend, but a jackal is a warning through Christianity. A Hackle is the hair on their back.

You couldn’t conceive it
The dogs were on edge, warning you, but you didn’t think it could be true at all.

You were sleeping soundly
When they dragged you from your bed
And I tried to warn you about them

She tried to warn you about these people [the media? KayneKim?] the people around us, but you didn’t listen, you couldn’t conceive it, and they dragged your name.
This is the only line in the song besides the alcoholism, that makes me think this song for sure could be tied to Cassandra and the situation with Kayne through the years, but also could stand for Matty and referencing Did your research, you knew the price going in. She warned him that this was going to be hard, that the media will dig up your past, but you didn’t listen and then when it came you couldn’t handle it. And in the end He shot the albatross, and punished her, although she was just the messenger.

So I crossed my thoughtless heart
Spread my wings like a parachute
I’m the albatross
I swept in at the rescue
The devil that you know
Looks now more like an angel
I’m the life you chose
And all this terrible danger

After it is all over, this person can see that she was just the warning. She was there to help you, warn you, and be with you through the all. She was there to soften the blow [a parachute to slow your fall and land you to safety] and came to help you. You thought she was the devil causing this to happen to you, but you realize it wasn’t her. You chose her, and the danger it put you in, she didn’t force any of this on you.

So cross your thoughtless heart
She’s the albatross
She is here to destroy you

But in the end, he took it out on her. In the end she was the danger, or so, that’s how you treated her, even there she was there to help you. You didn’t think this through, but you chose your fate.

Visual Representation

I couldn’t stop thinking about the poem on this one – so I did compose an image in Austin, Tx with the feeling of endless sand, no water in sight – being warned about the lack of survival ahead. I took this with my 35mm film camera, 100asa, kodak gold.