What does Build a Wall mean?

Burlap to Cashmere: Build a Wall Meaning

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Album cover for Build a Wall album cover

Song Released: 2011


Build a Wall Lyrics

She was driving through the night through that fortune road of fame
She was looking for the man just to powder up the pain
And the power of the Sun never caught her weary sand
She was looking for the man with the gun in the hat
Drinking...

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  1. anonymous
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     Sep 26th 2017 !⃝

    It's about drug addiction and those who try to help them get clean.

    "powder up the pain" = cocaine or heroin

    "shake the light
    drown the sun
    close the shades
    lock the door
    burn the pages of your life
    as your body hits the floor"

    accurate description of addicts shooting heroin or even opioids.

  2. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Jan 18th 2012 !⃝

    Not entirely sure because I've just come across this song, but here's my take:

    Nehemiah was an Old Testament leader at a time when the people of Israel had returned to the Promised Land after 70 years exile in Babylon. It was a return to hope, life and salvation - for the Promised Land was everything for them. Upon their return the Bible gives a focus on rebuilding two things, The Temple and the city wall of Jerusalem.

    The Temple was the place of Israel's worship to God, and the city wall was their protection, it was what kept them safe to live and to worship. As the Proverbs says, a man without discipline is like a city without a wall. That is, without defense, easily attacked and brought down, unable to build.

    This song seems to be about a woman whose life is without a wall - easily attacked and brought down, in a state of ruin. Yet the ultimate cause of this state is herself. Desires she has and choice she makes to bring herself there, to allow outside forces to destroy her - she is, ultimately, self-destructive.

    This is seen in the first verse as she is looking for fame and for something to ease her pain - but the Sun (Christ) - is not where she heads - so He in unable to be that for her.

    The chorus summarises her actions I think.
    "Shake the light
    Drown the sun
    Close the shades
    Lock the door
    Burn the pages of your life
    As your body hits the floor"

    If Christ is the Sun then she is trying to block Him out. Shaking Him, drowning Him, locking herself away from the light, and in her darkness, destroying the pages of her life.

    "And as you weep you can hear it
    There's an echo of a call
    And through the violent bloody night
    Nehemiah builds the wall"

    Then in the last part, as she brings herself to her own sorrow again, an inner witness, an inner voice, speaks to her. Like Nehemiah who fought to build the city wall - building the wall in the face of a violent threat - so too in responding to the call within she begins to rebuild her city wall in the midst of her own temptations and battles.

    I'm not sure of the man in the first verse nor the majority of the second. It seems there is some sort of false prophet - someone who seems to be offering the truth of God but in fact is not, someone who is in it only for himself. He promises life but in fact, deceptively, is helping her die (gun in the hat - a hidden gun)?

    It's also possible in the second verse that there is a true prophet there, trying to help, but maybe the verse about poison means it's useless throwing verses at someone when their own mind is poisoned or sinful. That mere words cannot help someone whose wall is destroyed and whose life is vulnerable and in ruins.

    "Yesterday's gone
    Tomorrow an illusion" refers, I think, to the fact that in life we should neither dwell on the past which either brings us down or hold us back, nor should we spend our life dreaming or waiting for tomorrow which never comes, but rather live to full, doing the right thing, the best we can, today.

    "Infinity
    I am fire, I am gold
    I am river, I am sea
    I'm eternally the sound
    That is screaming to be free"

    That idea is further highlighted when contrasted with the Biblical God, whose Name is "I am" - neither future, nor present, but Eternal, Infinite. He is Immanuel (God with us), the "I am", who is concerned with right now, and wishing to help us there, and will take care of the past and the future for us if we will trust and follow Him right now in the present.

    These lines seem to be trying to paint a picture of the awesome vastness and power and beauty of God. That He is the life and the strength and the salvation that she needs, and who can help her, and is the voice within her crying out to help her if she will let follow Him.

    So then, I think it is a song about the cry of God within the life of someone who is self-destructively coming to ruin and who feels lost - weeping - but unable to save herself from the enemies which keep leading her to self-destruction. And that the Nehemiah imagery is to remind us that the way forward is a battle. Israel had the chance to build their life again, their city, and the wall which would give them normality and security, but they would have to build that wall (which would keep the enemies out), while they were still vulnerable and while under the threat and violence of those active enemies.

    The Bible recounts how the workers, at one point, worked with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other. They were building slowly, ready to fight, but they were building, and they finished.

    God is everything, she just need to fight enough to trust Him, and for the wall to be built in her life.

    That's my take any way!


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