Mumford & Sons: The Cave Meaning
The Cave Lyrics
The sun, it rises slowly as you walk
Away from all the fears
And all the faults you've left behind
The harvest left no food for you to eat
You cannibal, you meat-eater, you see
But I have seen the...
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The first time i heard this song my eyes teared up because it just ripped into me like a knife and brought me back 5 years to when i was divorcing my ex-husband. I didn't realize it at the time, but over the years being married to him i had progressivly slipped away from my "true self". His personality had steered me into being someone i wasn't, and that was just so clear after being apart from him how much i needed to be me again. "I'll know my name as it's called again" was symbolic of going back to my maiden name after the divorce. The part "So make your siren's call,
And sing all you want, I will not hear what you have to say" was my strength in knowing that I was doing what was right, and that no one was going to convince me otherwise.
...fast forward to present day - very happily re-married, knowing that all that pain has made me stronger and softer all at the same time. -
I'm not sure, but my girlfriend loves to sing along with the song when we are driving in the car. And for that moment, the dogs quit barking, and life is good.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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To me it sounds like someone walking away from temptation, or the devil (the harvest left no food for you to eat, etc.)
The only question I have with that is why wouldn't he let the devil choke? -
I thought it was an interpretation on Gandhi's journey to freedom for india. He utilized pain to gain power, hence "strength in pain," and it kindof exaplains the music video with the sati soilders, indian hired soilders that fought for the british.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I appreciate the allegory to Plato's cave of ignorance, but I am pretty sure this song is about a very powerful relationship. I don't think its about a lover although it easily could be....I think its meaning is much broader (but I do equate it very much to my one ex and sing it to him when I hear it on the radio in my car! Gawd yeah I sing in my car! haha)
It's really about the pain of choosing to feel the loss of trust, of being fully unclothed and raw. The object could even be a parent or someone that mattered so much but checked out because they were incapable of the experiencing truth and when there is a call to that by the subject, there is not only numbness to how the object affected the subject, but a detachment from thier own humanity...A loss of soul without even realizing it.
The spirit, soul and mind of a human is a map not easily traveled alone. When we trust others, its as if we are holding hands on uncharted territory in the dark. Those corners best be traveled to together. When one in a partnership chooses self deceit over the journey....well I think this is what this song is about....
The Noose is the trap of self deceit, and the reference to "my name" becoming true again references that they were slandered and humiliated so that their own name became a false representation of who they really were. Lies and slander. As if it used to be associated with honor, but the object of this song defiled the subject, even down to the utterance of his own name...and through the truth of experiencing his pain, he is able to reclaim it.
It could be the betrayal of a nation, of a brotherhood, but it is about betrayal and deciept. Where the betrayor walks away and numbs themself to what theyve done and diminishes thier own humanity. The subject cries the truth to that person or entity, but knows the only truth is that the noose will be that wake up call. Its not a threat, its a call to deaf ears....this song is a not vengeful, its a last ditch effort to save the object in hopes they will listen. That is the angst in this song....its not anger, its frustration that I hear, because that love mattered to the person singing it, and that love was a true one - not a convenient one. -
I think it has something to do with being freed from a self-centered mentality. Selfish can mean egotistical, or it can also mean self-loathing. I think it refers more to the latter ('empty heart', 'fears and faults left behind'). The singer maybe is watching someone else go through the same struggles he's gone through before ('I have seen the same...'). He wants this person to rise to his/her calling, as he did. What is this calling? A calling away from selfishness (the 'you take what is yours and I'll take mine' mentality) and towards the love of those in need, despite your own personal issues ('widows and orphans' despite 'tears'... 'know my call' despite 'fears'). The singer's cave is the entrapment brought by this narrow-sighted mentality, and he wants others to be freed from it (Plato's cave allegory describes a feeling of wanting to free others from the cave if you escape). The 'makers land' would be the world outside the cave. Leaving the cave makes you 'understand dependence' - the dependence you have on other people - so you don't act selfishly anymore but act on behalf of everyone. Going back to the cave to liberate others, he refuses to listen to their ignorance.
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i think its about the Odyssey aswell as he talks about being tied to a post which odysseus is and he puts wax in his ears so that refers to 'so tie me to a post and block my ears'.it also mentions 'so make your sirens call'which is in the odyssey.that was the first thing i thought about when i heard this song.
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this may just be the point of english teachers everywhere to analyze everything to the last minute detail. But I found quite a few things from the Odyssey, he leaves what he loves, the first stop his men eat and turn into animals, "The harvest left no food for you to eat You cannibal, you meat-eater, you see But I have seen the same I know the shame in your defeat" and he ties himself to a post on the ship so he is not tempted,"So tie me to a post and block my ears
I can see widows and orphans through my tears
I know my call despite my faults
And despite my growing fears" it even mentions the sirens, and coming out of the cave. now I have no idea if that was the intent, it is more likely that is just my reading to far into it. But when I heard the song I thought it had multiple parallels to the Odyssey. that is just my opinion though -
To me, this song is from the point of view of a person who is in a relationship that is comfortable but not fulfilling, and feels their life will gain momentum in the wrong direction if they don't get out now. The impression I get is that the subject has expressed what they are feeling but keeps getting talked down from it by their love. Perhaps at the same time, they feel guilty for wanting to walk out on the person they love, but then realize that this relationship could be damaging to that other person as well. All the bits about faults and fears reflects the uncertainty of this decision, whether or not it is the right one, but by the end of the song they have resisted the "siren's call." And yet in the end, they still want what's best for the one they are walking away from.
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There may be other messages in this wonderful song, but one message rings loud and clear. The singer has had much pain, as has the one he loves to whom he sings. Unlike his love, the singer has learned to accept the pains that come from living, and has learned to love life despite the pains. He sings to his lover in the hope that she, too, can learn the same, and come out of the figurative "cave" in which she has hidden herself.
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I got the impression it was about recovering from an addiction, but it personifies the addiction. I take this mostly from the lines "I'll find strength in pain, I will change my ways".
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I believe the title is an allusion to Plato's allegory of the cave. Carrying that allusion to the lyrics of the song it seems to suggest that the character of the song is oppressed by lack of authenticity and falseness. There are numerous references to oppression and ultimately the character finds that freedom is gained through knowledge. Another line reinforces the strength of truth by offering that truth can "refresh my broken mind". Of particular interest in the song are the lines: "So come out of your cave walking on your hands And see the world hanging upside down" where the relationship between perception and reality or skewed much like in Plato's allegory.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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