These Rooms Of Shadows By Elizabeth Jennings Annotations

implying of feelings such as regret and guilt. He then states “I’m dead to you now, still holding the words that were left unsaid”. The intensity of his sorrow causes the narrator to feel lifeless. For him, time passed too quickly and a lot was left unsaid. The narrator has chosen silence over disturbing his father with his worries as seen in the line “Couldn’t burden you with the sorrows that crushed my chest”. The narrator speaks of their reunion in death and of his own mortality, and highlights the fact that even when united finally he “will be 7 hours late”. He understands that he cannot explain his reasons for his absence until they meet again, hence reaffirming the feeling of regret.

The following line “These rooms of shadows, echoes

As the first two verses represent the voice of the narrator, in the following lines the narrator’s voice shifts into an implied other person who sings “Bury my heart / Cover it with the coldest stones / So it will suffer longer / Like I did in your arms”. These lines can be interpreted as the narrator’s memories of the woman, but also insinuates his feelings of guilt and sorrow that these memories evoke. In the following lines the focus returns to the narrator as he continues “You led me into the darkest night”. At first this seems like an accusation but the interpretation changes as the narrator adds “To the deepest shades with your heart open wide / Into the battle with death on your shoulder”. It seems that the narrator is stating that they both knew that love will cause misery and pain, yet they went into “the battle” with full speed and indifferent to the probable

The loss of hope and freedom is exemplified by “The Memory of Light”. The lyrics start with the narrator observing something falling from the sky. The surroundings are calm and the prevailing soft light suggests either of the moment right before the rising or after the setting of the sun. The narrator is left unsure of what he saw falling, and this leaves him wondering if it was a star or burning wings. The narrator refers to this phenomenon of light as “she”. Burning wings are typically connected to negative feelings, such as to be hurt, damaged, or destroyed in some manner, whereas a falling star holds positive connotations, for instance, a promise or a wish. In the second stanza the narrator speaks of “her”. She is in pain, sleeping while guarded by “her crows”. Earlier crows have been interpreted as a reference to people or describing an overall feeling of melancholy, similarly in this case “her crows” could refer to her melancholic state of mind. The narrator watches her while she is sleeping and as the night arrives he notes that the darkness around her grows insinuating that she is becoming weaker and more hopeless. The narrator has tried to save her “from this place” of trouble and sadness by washing “her wings” and hiding “her horns”, emphasizing her dark state of her mind or the pain that she