White Cedar is a song by The Mountain Goats from the album Transcendental Youth. The entire album is a journey, and "White Cedar," which is right in the middle of the album, is arguably the darkest and saddest part of that journey. It is a story from the perspective of a person who is involuntarily hospitalized for mental illness, but the song, in a broader sense, is about being stuck in a situation you can't control and learning to accept that.
The song begins with the narrator standing at the bus stop when they find out that they are going to be hospitalized. They still hold out hope that one day they will be well enough to move past their current situation in the line "I will be made a new creature/ One bright day," which transitions right into the first line of the chorus, "I don't have to be afraid."
During the second part of the song, the narrator is in the hospital and it is a difficult time. They say how they wake up on lock down and their visions won't ever learn. At the end of the verse, the line "My spirit sings loud and clear/ Even in here," brings to mind both the helplessness of being trapped in a place like a hospital and the power one has to stay themselves in a bad situation.
When I first heard this song freshman year, it really struck a chord with me, partly because of the meaning of the song, but also because the language is so powerful. I think that if a song and its lyrics stick with you all the way through high school, it can't be anything but poetry.
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