feels alienated and abandoned as he is obsessed by the memories of home. He is set against the landscape of loneliness, on the seashore and beneath the vaulted vastness of the night sky, echoing similar landscape as in Edvard Munch’s Melancholia (1902) or Anselm Kiefer’s Sternenfall (1995). Liminal sites are thought to echo loneliness and longing (Bowring 2008: 72), and as seen in this example, the in between spaces of land – sea and land – sky emphasize the melancholy of the narrator.
The narrator describes the desert as “vast fields of sand”, thus highlighting the isolation and uneasiness of his experience. According to Bell (2014: 178), the desert itself is melancholic and represents the way a melancholic sees and feels the world, hence …show more content…
At first the narrator seems to refer to his own feelings of hope and sorrow, but then continues by creating an allusion to the North. The narrator plans to be “like an arrow”, thus implying of movement and also of return. The following line “This heart of a cold white land” verifies his view on his identity that is closely linked to his homeland. Continuing with the juxtaposition of light and dark, the narrator describes some characteristics common to the North. All of the mentioned characteristics are incorporated “In these songs from the North”. This obvious reference to the title song and to the triple album also in more general manner seems to allude to songs that express longing and sadness, for instance, in the Portuguese tradition of the fado. Fado was traditionally sung by sailors or peasants to express their longing to return from their long journeys (Bowring 2008: 130). Whether the narrator is on a journey or not, the “songs from the North” resonate nostalgia but also show how the memories of are kept fresh and alive in his …show more content…
The narrator feels “lost” in her wilderness and in her arms. However, instead of physically being in lost in “the wilderness” probably he feels “lost” in his thoughts and memories of home. The narrator states “From your love my heart has been forged” implying that his homeland has left a permanent impression to his identity. The following line “Eternal nights, to ever-light” suggests that even as time passes, the narrator will not forget the North. The lyrics of “Songs from the North” differ from earlier examples most obviously due to the fact that the chorus is written in Finnish. The first person perspective is kept, however the language change could insinuate of a change of the narrator. The chorus tells how the winter arrives with the night, and with the coming of winter the songs of the North fade away and the crop is stricken down by the frost. And when death arrives, one will be buried to the frosty soil and the songs of the North will be the only thing one can take with them. The chorus represents the change of seasons, death and passing of
The narrator describes the desert as “vast fields of sand”, thus highlighting the isolation and uneasiness of his experience. According to Bell (2014: 178), the desert itself is melancholic and represents the way a melancholic sees and feels the world, hence …show more content…
At first the narrator seems to refer to his own feelings of hope and sorrow, but then continues by creating an allusion to the North. The narrator plans to be “like an arrow”, thus implying of movement and also of return. The following line “This heart of a cold white land” verifies his view on his identity that is closely linked to his homeland. Continuing with the juxtaposition of light and dark, the narrator describes some characteristics common to the North. All of the mentioned characteristics are incorporated “In these songs from the North”. This obvious reference to the title song and to the triple album also in more general manner seems to allude to songs that express longing and sadness, for instance, in the Portuguese tradition of the fado. Fado was traditionally sung by sailors or peasants to express their longing to return from their long journeys (Bowring 2008: 130). Whether the narrator is on a journey or not, the “songs from the North” resonate nostalgia but also show how the memories of are kept fresh and alive in his …show more content…
The narrator feels “lost” in her wilderness and in her arms. However, instead of physically being in lost in “the wilderness” probably he feels “lost” in his thoughts and memories of home. The narrator states “From your love my heart has been forged” implying that his homeland has left a permanent impression to his identity. The following line “Eternal nights, to ever-light” suggests that even as time passes, the narrator will not forget the North. The lyrics of “Songs from the North” differ from earlier examples most obviously due to the fact that the chorus is written in Finnish. The first person perspective is kept, however the language change could insinuate of a change of the narrator. The chorus tells how the winter arrives with the night, and with the coming of winter the songs of the North fade away and the crop is stricken down by the frost. And when death arrives, one will be buried to the frosty soil and the songs of the North will be the only thing one can take with them. The chorus represents the change of seasons, death and passing of