What does Arsonist's Lullaby mean?

Hozier: Arsonist's Lullaby Meaning

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Album cover for Arsonist's Lullaby album cover

Arsonist's Lullaby Lyrics

When I was a child, I heard voices...
Some would sing and some would scream
You soon find you have few choices...
I learned the voices died with me

When I was a child, I'd sit for hours
Staring into open flame
Something in it had a...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Mar 6th 2019 !⃝

    I think he's talking about how he felt growing up and discovering he had homosexual urges and feelings.. He is talking about his internal struggle and feelings of guilt and especially the line; " when i was sixteen my senses fooled me, thought gasoline was on my clothes" seems to be him talking about how he, in his teen years thought that he was gonna burn in hell for his " sin" of being gay.. He then tells people to never "tame their demons but always keep them on a leash".. Never deny or ignore your feelings / your desires, but take control of them.

  2. anonymous
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    Jun 16th 2020 !⃝

    I think this song is about schizophrenia. Hearing voices, senses fooling you, knwing only you smell the scent, and that these things will die with you all point to it.
    Living with SZ requires the ability to "keep your demons on a leash"

  3. anonymous
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    May 13th 2020 !⃝

    I believe he is trying to portray how our life's purpose or maybe a specific thing many die finding in themselves.. keeps showing itself if only one pays heed. How different stages of human life interpret it differently so. And eventually after a long time he looks back at his life.. tries to put it in a perspective & his lessons from the said experience (never tame the demons, but keep them on a leash)

    The arsonist here is every person waiting for something they're good at to happen to them when they don't know they're capable of igniting things up? Let me know if i make any sense here!

  4. anonymous
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    Mar 27th 2020 !⃝

    i think the song is a little more related to drug abuse.("senses fooled me"),how he would hear voices that would urge him to do irrational things, like destroying(or burning) things and also suicidal thought, he felt more alive while intoxicated and so when the effects dulled he felt dead more of numb.., ("the voices died with me")..there is a hope as well as hopelessness in the fire, fire to 'reach a goal' or fire to turn into ashes., but the fire always overpowered him.., after his so called youth was over he thought that the fire was finally killed by relishing in the pain of a heart break from 'the perfect love' but he is at peace because of the ashes that is left after he burned in the flames of true love.,
    also it also shows desperation of an escapist., either by drugs or just to get lost while staring in flames., maybe to find a purpose

  5. anonymous
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    Feb 24th 2020 !⃝

    The song has a meaning for me personally. Fire is passion, it is dangerous, it is wonderous, it is strong and powerful and it is an angry person who typically burns things down.

    I think the musician is revealing the wonder of fire and blending the effect of burning things and the internal rage that leads to death, desctruction and is often rooted in pain and often in youth.

  6. anonymous
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    Jan 3rd 2020 !⃝

    I dont feel like this has anything to do with Fire... I think about his personal demons.

  7. anonymous
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    May 31st 2019 !⃝

    I think this song is about passion. “All you have is your fire” Is saying it’s all you have to keep yourself safe to the negatives or “voices”/anxieties that he refers to in the lyrics. Your peace depends on you finding your passion and just being genuinely happy, you need to find your fire. This song is about finding your passion and finding yourself and your happiness through that.

  8. anonymous
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    Jan 9th 2019 !⃝

    He was abused physically and emotionally as a child , his brain blocked it out n left fragments of memories he was left in neglect to sit with the feelings of anger building inside him . Then at 16 the memories were undeniably all around him and he thought he was to blame covered in it, he hit phycosis n if ur z little crazy you know what your capable of but you also know the consiquence xo you keep that side bnb ot you on a leash n u accept you will always carry with you an ache that never leaves

  9. anonymous
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    May 15th 2018 !⃝

    It sounds a lot like an interpretation of schizophrenia... Hearing voices, having delusions, and sitting in the same position for hours indicates a psychosis episode.

  10. GOMEOWNASAI
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    Jan 14th 2018 !⃝

    Arson is a crime of intentionally, deliberately and maliciously setting fire to certain things and an arsonist obviously is the one who commits it.
    This song speaks about such arsonist's coming to terms with himself, of realizing he was stuck in a particular world and always will be. I highly believe that the fire is a metaphor for the world of violence and that the man in this song is someone who is attracted or drawn to it in a John Wick sort of way. He acknowledges that the attraction to violence will always be there. It cannot be destroyed, but it must always be subdued.

  11. anonymous
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    Apr 11th 2017 !⃝

    Trashcan man from The Stand by Stephen King.

  12. anonymous
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    Mar 27th 2017 !⃝

    I think the song is about gaslighting and DID and struggling to recover from further revictimization.

  13. anonymous
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    Apr 25th 2016 !⃝

    I think its his life story. He was abused and looked to fire for his medicine and then took it too far and burnt his whole life down, Not depending on anyone else he fell apart. And didn't come back from what we were.


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