Light And Darkness In Swallow The Sun

As seen in the analysis, it can be argued that in case of longing, memory and time hold the most significant role in evoking melancholy as they cause feelings of longing and nostalgia. In addition, the analysis brought up few symbolic meanings which will be briefly discussed here. The metaphorical meaning of light and darkness play an important function in song lyrics as seen, for instance, in “The Heart of a Cold White Land” and “Away”. Light expresses feelings of hope, relief, love and safety, whereas dark typifies pain, sorrow, fear and uneasiness. Songs such as “Pray for the Winds to Come”, “The Heart of a Cold White Land” and “Songs from the North” represented individual nostalgia and pre-nostalgia either by stressing algos or nostos,

In the song “The Gathering of the Black Moths” the narrator has experienced loss of loved ones that in turn causes in him the loss of hope. Similarly in “7 Hours Late” the lyrics describe the narrator’s loss of his father but also the loss of hope as his father will never return. In “Heartstrings Shattering” the narrator relives the loss of a loved one every time he remembers her. Also in “Room and Shadows” the narrator has lost loved ones and that loss has caused great pain and sorrow for him. As exemplified by these four song lyrics, death circles around the concept of melancholy. As Edgar Allan Poe has stated “of all melancholy topics what, according to the universal understanding of all mankind, is the most melancholy? Death was the obvious reply” (Poe 1846:

The loss of hope and freedom is exemplified by “The Memory of Light”. The lyrics of “Lost & Catatonic” represent the overall feeling of loss of the melancholic narrator that seems to have lost all interest in life. The loss of a person or a place causes various feelings. Along with the obvious feelings of pain and sorrow, other reactions such as helplessness, fear, emptiness, pessimism, and even guilt may occur. Also restlessness and experiencing a loss of concentration, hope, motivation, and energy are all connected to loss — the more significant the loss, the more intense the grief will be. As Flatley (2008: 36) state by quoting Julia Kristeva “If the melancholic person knows what it is to fall […] into “an abyss of sorrow, a non-communicable grief that at times, and often on a long term basis, lays claim upon us to the extent of losing all interest in words, actions and even life itself” (Flatley 2008: