What does Tyrant mean?

The Bravery: Tyrant Meaning

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Album cover for Tyrant album cover

Tyrant Lyrics

Everytime you come around
There's a bouquet for me
A corsage of promises
And I am pinned
Like a butterfly on a card
I'm naked and I'm scarred
And you're so perfect to me

Violent ties with hands like a steeple
Tell me lies with a tongue...

  1. kvn8907
    click a star to vote
    Feb 20th 2008 !⃝

    I see two different interpretations of this: tyrant as a domineering woman and a tyrant as an actual tyrant like Hitler, Stalin, and Franco.

    Either way, they start off the same way, with a "corsage of promises", and pin the victim to their will, while appearing perfect.

    However, the second stanza is difficult to interpret as the tyrannical woman. "Violent eyes but hands like a steeple" seems to me to suggest that they have their eyes set on evil intentions but seem to be good in action. As a political tyrant this makes since. Hitler, after all, seemed to rebuild and reinvigorate Germany, all while preaching hate for Jews and Communists. As a female tyrant, it makes less sense. Perhaps it means that see has violent ambitions of controlling a man, while seems to be harmless in action at least for the time.

    "Words of wisdom" means things that the victim agrees with at the time, perhaps invigorated by the power of the tyrant, but may realize how foolish much of it is later.

    The "cooked just like a pig" stanza is pretty easy. By this point the tyrant has complete control of the victim, taking all they have so that only the tyrant is still important to the victim.

    Finally, the "noises in my head" part seems to be the most difficult part to interpret. The singer says it's just a noise in his head, but then insinuates it's coming from the tyrant's mouth. This seems to make more sense as the personal tyrant than the political tyrant, but perhaps now the victim realizes that they're being controlled, and wants to break free, yet at the same time still wants to be controlled by the tyrant and feel the safety and security of being controlled by another person. So perhaps while the victim wants to "bury all of these noises from your tyrant mouth", the victim also thinks such rebellious thoughts are "just a noise in [their] head", and that they should ignore it and just go along with the tyrant.


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