Nirvana: Heart Shaped Box Meaning

Song Released: 1998

Heart Shaped Box Lyrics

She eyes me like a pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your Heart Shaped box for a weeks
I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black

Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new...

1. anonymous

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   Dec 14th 2005 !⃝

   I've heard a lot of people talk about what they think this song is about, and personally, I think it's mostly just about the many different negative effects a bad relationship can have on a person and their veiw of the world.
   
   The lines "HEY! HATE! I got I a new complaint! Forever in dept to your priceless edvice!" I think refer to how sometimes an older person's veiw on things like civil rights and racism can badly effect a person's veiw of that subject. I got this interpertation after I saw the video featuring the little girl in the "KKK" outfit with the old man on the cross, after she is seen with him, her hat blows away and is consumed with tar (racism) and turns completely black, to look like a witch's hat. But That's just my opnion, it could be very wrong because I have heard the video is based on a dream Kurt had, someone else has written this on this website.
   
   Personally, I think most of the other lyrics pertain to co-depenedncy and self hatred caused by a bad relationship.
2. anonymous

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   Dec 14th 2005 !⃝

   I think he is talking about being sick of Courtneey Love, that stupid bitch! Or who knows, he was on heroin!

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. gonnakicktomorrow

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   Nov 25th 2005 !⃝

   "I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap" meaning the male/female attraction. You get drawn in. The magnet tarpit trap sounds like a vagina. The heart shaped box is a abstract concept for love. Whatever is locked within the box is what is the object of affection.
4. anonymous

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   Nov 18th 2005 !⃝

   It could be that Kurt is angry at Courtney because she got him into heroin. Heroin is supposedly why he killed himself, because he was sick of being addicted to it and he hated the person it had turned him to. "Forever in debt to your priceless advice." Courtney told him to take heroin because it was better than what he was already on.
5. anonymous

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   Nov 14th 2005 !⃝

   The original name of the song was "Heartshaped Coffin." Their producer then changed it to "heartshaped box."
6. darkpower0

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   Nov 14th 2005 !⃝

   What you say could be all well and true, but to this day Courtney Love has denied the arguments between her and Kurt Cobain, so is she really going to admit it like that?

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

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   Nov 12th 2005 !⃝

   I don't doubt any of your credibility for a second, so I'm not going to argue with any of your points. I just wanted to add that I read Courtney Love's interview in Spin and she claims that it was written about her vagina. I thought about it for a bit and some lines really make sense and some really don't. for instance, "Broken Hymen," that says enough. "Meat-eating orchids" vaginas have often been refered to as "flowers" and hers just happens to eat his meat.
   
   That's all I got.
8. anonymous

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   Oct 15th 2005 !⃝

   The second interpretation was correct. Before Kurt and Courtney even had a serious relationship going on (or one at all, unsure about this particularity), Courtney gave Kurt a heart-shaped box with small trinkets/presents inside. He wrote this song inspired by her and her gift.
9. crutchead

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   Oct 10th 2005 !⃝

   I've heard that this partly had something to do with Cobains art projects (including the artwork that appeared in the In Utero album cover from where this song is taken from).
   
   I recall that there's a pun about WAYNE's WORLD, that show where the song was featured and Wayne went to state that it sounded like Cobain is calling out to him for a complaint if one would listen closely. He went to state something like: "If you got a complaint, then mail us a letter and we'd surely respond to your comments rather than whine about it in public!", lol.
10. Random Fan

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    Sep 26th 2005 !⃝

    Hate to correct you annon, but this was Kurt's tribute to Courtney Love. She once gave him a heart shaped box with stuff in as a gift to him and this was his present to her. She even helped with some of the lyrics. The video bears no relevance to the song though, it was based on a dream Kurt had, or so he said.
11. anonymous

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    Aug 18th 2005 !⃝

    The song is clearly portraying Kurt's secret hatred for his wife Cortney Love "Forever in debt to your pricless advice" is a sarcastic line and suggests that Courtney often intervined in his life. A condition which Kurt did not like. "She eyes me like a pisces when I'm weak" suggests Courtney may have exploited Kurt when he was at his weakest and perhaps most depressed. The "Meat eating orchids" is most likely a reference to Courtney. It implies thta while kurt thought she was pretty she was indeed as horrific as "Meat eating orchids".

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