The Poetry within the Music

Hozier's song "Take me to church" off his album Take me to church E.P is a great example of Music poetry. It has a good beat and is catchy and poetically it has many hidden meanings sprinkled throughout the song. The song's title is actually the opposite of what Hozier wants to do. He states that the church spits poison at the people who attend, that the church says we are born sick.

The song starts with...

My lover's got humor
She's the giggle at a funeral
Knows everybody's disapproval
I should've worshipped her sooner
If the heavens ever did speak
She's the last true mouthpiece

The word choice in this first stanza is interesting because he loves the woman that he is with and believes that if God did speak and was real that he would speak through this woman because she is more interesting than a church.

In the next stanza ...

Every Sunday's getting more bleak
A fresh poison each week
"We were born sick"

Hozier feels like every time he goes to church it's getting bleaker and bleaker compared to his woman who he decides he should have been worshipping her instead. The church spits new poison each weak about how we are sick and sinful creatures and that we should be ashamed.

The chorus is in a very sarcastic tone one of the lines is "I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife." He feels that the church demeans those who attend and will attack them for decisions that they have made that go against what the church thinks is holy.

All these lines leads up to the message that the church believes that we are all sick and sinful but we as humans have to love and accept others no matter how "sick" they are. That because the church doesn't accept someone that doesn't mean you shouldn't. This is poetry because it has many different meanings and hidden messages throughout the song. People can discuss what he means in his song and it can mean different things to different people just like poetry.