What does Secret Garden mean?

Bruce Springsteen: Secret Garden Meaning

Album cover for Secret Garden album cover

Secret Garden Lyrics

She'll let you in her house
If you come knockin' late at night
She'll let you in her mouth
If the words you say are right
If you pay the price
She'll let you deep inside
But there's a secret garden she hides
She'll let you in her car
To go...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 17th 2017 !⃝

    It's about self-preservation. She shows only what she wants another to see of herself. She can appear open to one who doesn't know any different; fun, loving, intimate, caring and she is to some extent, all the while maintaining full control. She will never allow herself to be vulnerable. She can't trust anyone... afraid to open up completely, not wanting to give all of herself to another... in case it ends. When it does, she still has something left of herself no one will ever get close enough to know. It is hers alone. Untouchable. Unbreakable. That is her strength, she tells herself. Because when she loves, she will love deep and if she let go of it all to be completely transparent and that relationship didn't last, she would feel foolish and betrayed for giving so much of herself to the wrong one and then she would just shut down completely... to never try again. She doesn't want to do that, so she holds back a part of herself to protect... In order to still have someone... but without them ever really having her... A shallow man won't notice or care much, or else will want her regardless. A man of any depth will want a woman completely and never be satisfied with one who holds back a part of herself. Thus, this woman is doomed to never fully have the depth or true intimacy that she seeks, because she holds back that part of herself that any worthy man would want... all of her. It would take a resilient man, willing to stick it out to try to break down that wall... and that is the only one she'd even want anyway, but most wouldn't want the hassle.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    christine.lyon.395
    click a star to vote
    Apr 28th 2014 !⃝

    It's a lot like the lady said in Titanic: "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets." It's true. Women have a private secret place where no one can ever touch. You may earn sex, time, and even love, but you can NEVER touch that secret place where my hopes and dreams live. That is my place. Even my husband of 13 years will never make it to that place. It's my secret world of my memories, my dreams, my desires, my past, my present, my future. It's the place I can't and won't express in words. That is what this song speaks of. Everyone woman has her 'secret garden'.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 12th 2014 !⃝

    This is me. I gave my heart openly and he robbed me. Trying over and over, I felt there was the outside self that seemed what people wanted. There was the inside part that no one really wanted to see so I hid it. When someone finds the biggest part, but it's so filled with emotion, to show it might cause rejection. For true love to happen, I want intimacy but I will make someone work so hard to get to that inner garden because I need to be sure if I expose myself, I won't face rejection and humiliation.
    But as I expose myself so slowly, my fear grows and it may never come out. I wonder too if it's worth all the work a guy will go through. What's so special in that place that would benefit him? It would only help him know the most effective ways of hurting me, so why risk it?
    I hate it when I he wants to get closer and really know me because then I feel so afraid. He can have my body, a feeling of love, my stuff, but he will never have the real me because that was given openly at one time and hurt so badly that it can never be risked again. Though I desperately want to open it to someone. Never seems to be the right person. Maybe a little here and a little there but all to one person who could use it against me, let's not be so vulnerable because it feels safer to show just the parts that can't be hurt. I disassociate with everything when needed. I only have that tiny part of me that I protect.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 30th 2022 !⃝

    To the person who wrote:
    "It’s about an INFJ woman! Hello!! You’ll never get into that secret garden...by the time she is old enough for a serious relationship, she already has put up enough walls around that garden to keep out Godzilla!"
    OMG, that really struck me!!! I really identify with this song personally, and yes, I used to be an INFJ; became more INFP as I've gotten older, but the types are so similar.
    I relate to this song because I became this woman over the years. My secret garden flourishes as I age. I've had one relationship in my whole adult life, we've been together since we were teens. It's a mutual, deep love, though I am most definitely not "in love" nor would I ever be capable of that again. It's not for fear of being hurt, but it's because my secret garden is so beautiful and wonderful, no one is deserving of it. I love keeping it all to myself. I have definitely not ever met a man who could partner with me and be granted access. I don't crave or seek intimacy from my partner, nor do I think anyone else would be capable of delivering the kind of intimacy I imagine, so it's simply a lost cause. If a love as pure as ours once was could become so tainted and damaged, there is simply no hope. I do not fear vulnerability, I just don't have time to waste doing so with a faulty partner. I won't ever let him or anyone into my secret garden. The idea of being in love, or sharing deep intimacy with a partner is dead to me; I savor my garden alone knowing it's sacred that way.





  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 30th 2021 !⃝

    I truly belive it is Bruce trying to tell The world that If you dont fight for complete and true love, you Will not get it.
    Men in general are just emotional walls and lie to themself about thier pride and honor.
    I belive true love is that secret garden. And in the song she shows glimpts of it but If you think twice she Will not give it to you.
    Cause The truth is that men get taught to be assholes. Some are not ofcourse. Ive been one myself. But as we see from our children we are not born assholes.
    Find your desire from when The world was new and full of love. Treat people you love with that childs love. And you shall enter The garden and even rebuild yourown that society taught you to destroy.

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 1st 2020 !⃝

    She is preserving a deep part of herself and not allowing herself to be vulnerable. She is not letting a man know "all of her." It's all in self defense. If she keeps a man "a million miles away", like it says at the ending of the song she assumes she won't get hurt. But what really happens is she never finds what she is ultimately looking for, that deep connection with a man. He soon discovers that she is shut down or running away and he gives up and walks. She is always chasing an illusive dream.

  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 12th 2020 !⃝

    It’s about an INFJ woman! Hello!! You’ll never get into that secret garden...by the time she is old enough for a serious relationship, she already has put up enough walls around that garden to keep out Godzilla!

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 28th 2019 !⃝

    The secret garden is the deepest place of a woman’s heart that she will never reveal. Whether it be from grief, loss of a relationship, or other pain in her life, it’s such a deep place that only God can penetrate it. You can have intimacy with a woman but you will never reach her secret garden

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 16th 2019 !⃝

    Have you not heard Springsteen talk about this? It's about his love of the outdoors and how everyone can benefit from getting closer to mother earth. "She" is mother nature and all the references are about benefits we can get from enjoying nature and finding ways to help sustain earth's natural balances.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jul 1st 2017 !⃝

    This song is about a woman's vagina it is the garden itself. The fact of the secret is there are many ways to seduce a woman only way to earn her heart and enter her deep inside her vagina and soul.

  11. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jul 1st 2017 !⃝

    The song per the author Talon Xavier Thomas has the secret garden being her vagina that is given from the hear and cultivated by love. All her sexual desires are fulfilled through love. She gives her mouth. Her vagina and her secret garden is only revield through a loving spirit. Its the basic love verses lust.

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 19th 2017 !⃝

    I think the women is in love with someone she can't have. Someone that breaks her heart. You can love her however never reality have her. That's her secret garden.

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 13th 2017 !⃝

    I think this song is about a prostitute who likes anal sex (secret garden)

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 28th 2014 !⃝

    Your interpretation is kind of right. Try to read the interpretation at lyricsmode. Check the comment made two years ago. If you have heard of the book by John Gray titled Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.. Men are usually inside their caves and women can't really understand them. It takes time for men to be really open and ready to talk. Women's needs are different from Men's needs. It takes a lot of patience for the men to really understand the women and vise versa.

  15. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 28th 2014 !⃝

    It's about "his" INABILITY to get to the true unprotected "her".(her secret garden)Because he doesnt know where the secret garden is as he has protected himself like all men to the point they just live in an empty "barren emotional" world without a secret garden of their own.

  16. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 28th 2014 !⃝

    It's about "his" INABILITY to get to the true unprotected "her".(her secret garden)Because he doesnt know where the secret garden is as he has protected himself like all men to the point they just live in an empty "barren emotional" world without a secret garden of their own.

  17. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 8th 2014 !⃝

    The song is about all women(maybe even people in general). No matter who much they have shared (even if they've shared their heart...after your "hammer and vice") there is a part of them that they will never, EVER share with you. As beautiful as it is, this song is a deeply pessimistic song about the quest for intimacy. I've always felt this song came squarely from the "Tunnel of Love" ethos in the boss' work.

  18. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 19th 2013 !⃝

    I might be wrong, but when he says SHE I think he refers to COCAINE or any other drug...

    knocking late at night,mouth , pay the price, deep inside...these words remind me of a drug.
    THE SECRET GARDEN is the garanteed DEATH Where everything you want, Where everything you need Will always stay
    A million miles away.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
‹ prev 12



More Bruce Springsteen songs »


 


Latest Articles

 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]




Just Posted

Mad Hatter anonymous
Fire Lake anonymous
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead anonymous
We Gotta Get out of This Place anonymous
Jealous anonymous
Won't Get Fooled Again anonymous
Smokestack Lightning anonymous
True Colors anonymous
Future Love Paradise anonymous
Adios, Adios anonymous
Strangers anonymous
Possibility anonymous
Jailbreak anonymous
Sour Girl anonymous
Cornflake Girl anonymous

(We won't give out your email)