Peter Losing Wendy…
There are a lot of ties and endings from other albums in this album. We have an idea of who Cardigan was about, and now we can assume Peter tells a similar narrative. The idea of a young promised love, to be continued at another time, only to fail or to be let down in the end, is a narrative through both songs… and many albums.
Lyrical Analysis
Forgive me, Peter, my lost fearless leader
In closets like cedar, preserved from when we were just kids
Is it something I did?
The goddess of timing once found us beguiling
She said she was trying, Peter, was she lying? My ribs
Get the feeling she did
My lost fearless leader – a fearless leader, who doesn’t actually know where he is going. I love the metaphor of using Peter from peter pan. The kid that doesn’t want to grow up, stay a kid at heart, and honestly just stay immature. Although many takes on this is the idea of inner play and youth at heart, the comparison she is making isn’t the playful kind.
In closets like cedar, preserved from when we were just kids – If you grew up in the decade we did, most basements and homes had some sort of wood paneling [lol]. So she is asking is it something she did, we don’t know what just yet. The goddess of timing, tricked her, charmed her, and said she was trying to bring Peter back to her, but it’s beginning to prove that she was believing a lie.
Kali, in Hinduism, goddess of time, doomsday, and death. Death of the relationship?
And I didn’t wanna come down
I thought it was just goodbye for now
I dont necessarily know why she used ‘my ribs get the feeling she did,’ unless she is using the idea of being kicked and hurt physically, rather than her ‘gut,’ And she didn’t want to come down, which I think is a metaphor for your head in the clouds of hope.
You said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Words from the mouths of babes, promises oceans deep
But never to keep
Oh, never to keep
Empty promises, mouth of babes, relation to goddess of timing . Big promises with little follow through or intention to actually keep their word.
Mouth of babes is also a christian references, which this album is full of. In Psalms 8:2, God ordains strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings; in Matthew 21:16, praise comes from this source.
Are you still a mind-reader, a natural scene-stealer?
I’ve heard great things, Peter, but life was always easier on you
Than it was on me
And sometimes it gets me, when crossing your jet stream
We both did the best we could do underneath the same moon
In different galaxies
So this story continues on in three chapters it seems. Three points of contact. The first is an empty promise of coming back to her. She waits and waits, and feels this promise is never going to be fulfilled. The second time, she is seeing this person from afar. Wondering if they are the same. Seeing the success and knowing they know how to light a scene but also knowing that they have it a bit easier. I think this really boils down to her place in the industry. Men DO have it easier. Less hatred, less shame, less people rooting for them to fail.
So she thinks about them from time to time. Wondering what their life would be like together, and seeing how it is apart. But below, she didn’t want to hang around for him to come back, she was losing her patience, and she thought the goodbye was temporary, but it seems prolonged.
And I didn’t wanna hang around
We said it was just goodbye for now
You said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Words from the mouths of babes, promises oceans deep
But never to keep
Never to keep
Empty promises.
And I won’t confess that I waited, but I let the lamp burn
As the men masqueraded, I hoped you’d return
With your feet on the ground, tell me all that you’d learned
As Taylor does, we get the full story here. The third point of contact. She waited, through other relationships. As other men sat by her side, she wished they were him. Instead of flying in the clouds, he’d finally come down and return to her, and tell her that she was the one he wanted all along.
‘Cause love’s never lost when perspective is earned
And you said you’d come and get me, but you were 25
SO. I feel that this was around the Red era? We have some idea about this and their first little run in. And this just didn’t work out. She had moved on – and he was in his crazy days. She finally really did move on – turned off the light, and began new journeys with new people – seeking for true love.
And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired
Lost to the Lost Boys chapter of your life
Forgive me, Peter, please know that I tried
To hold on (hold on) to the days (to the days)
When you were mine
But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light
Peter losing Wendy
You said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up
You said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up (ah)
You said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me
Words from the mouths of babes, promises oceans deep
But never to keep
From the full story, we can assume that this was written before the final chapter of this relationship – in which the lamp did turn back on – but it still ended with empty promises. So no matter what, promises were never kept. But through the timeline of Maroon, Cardigan, Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus, and many many more, we see so many instances of the past that all end in disappointment. I will never get over that Maroon was about Matty. Ever lol.
What’s the most interesting to me, is the idea that Cardigan is somewhat of a comfort song of this Cardigan feeling used and leftover, but feeling new and favorited by someone else. However, there is a part this person leaves her
Cause I knew you
Steppin’ on the last train
Marked me like a bloodstain, I
I knew you
Tried to change the ending
Peter losing Wendy, I
I knew you
Leavin’ like a father
Running like water, I
And when you are young, they assume you know nothing
But she knew he’d come back to her – and he called her his favorite. Was this a fantasy? Or was one of these instances a point of contact in the past? Or did it happen during the writing of folklore? so many questions. But in the end, it doesn’t matter – forgive me peter, I’ve turned off the light.
Image Representation
When making work for this, I was thinking about this idea of childhood desire, wonder. The essence of time and thinking that it is enough. If I wait long enough, this will return to me. Being trapped in an idea, like Taylor references to snow globes, cages, and glass boxes lyrically throughout her albums. The idea confined you from really taking deeper risks – and eventually the wait will come to an end.