While Poetry is typically in literature, modern poetry has been seen more and more in music. Artists such as Natalie Merchant, an American singer-songwriter, is no exception. In Natalie Merchant's newest album, Natalie Merchant, her very first song is Lady Bird. I heard this song a year ago since I already loved and listened to two of her other albums. After I heard Lady Bird, I listened to the song for so long without listening to the meaning and without realizing how poetic it is.
In the song, Natalie communicates an experience that is rather ugly. She writes a story, in third person, of a woman who wants to end her life. She has lost her feeling of passion towards her husband and feels she has lost herself as well. The time period is made unclear because the message is universal and has been around for a long time.
“Now when he touches you, make no mistake, the fire’s long gone out and the ash has blown away/ You don’t know how to leave and you don’t know where to fly/ You don’t know what you feel but you know it’s not satisfied today.”
Natalie expressed the woman’s loss of satisfaction in her life and feels she has nowhere else to go. She uses the imagery of birds because birds are known for leaving their nests eventually, in this case, the woman’s unhappy marriage, and the freedom birds represent. She also compares her lost passion to ashes, which I thought was beautiful. She goes on to explain how she struggles to feel satisfied as a mother, and the pressure she feels to stay with her family even though she has no happiness from this life.
“So many little ones, so many mouths/ you’ve got a lot to feed and you know you don’t know how/ Making the best of it, somehow you’re making do, making the best of the days that you stay and you wait in this cage they made for you.”
The allegory of “the cage” Merchant refers to the repetition of birds and that of motherhood. It wasn’t until the late 1900s that it became accepted to have the choice of being a mother. It seems the woman, like so many others, did not plan on having children. She felt unqualified to be a mother and yet now she is one. The woman even contemplates resorting to suicide to leave her difficult life.
You know the sweetest wine, it’s a witches’ brew/ it pours like honey down and then burns a hole in you/
It’s unclear whether or not the woman ends up killing herself, but Merchant offers the last line to give the woman hope. Natalie also references birds again, since honeysuckle berries is what many birds eat, but humans can get sick if enough are eaten. I am not sure whether or not Natalie is referring to flying as suicide or just leaving her family, but she seems to have a very positive tone on the subject.
Maybe it’s time to fly, time to fly away!/ When you gonna spread your wings and fly?/ When you gonna fly away?/
Through this emotionally alone character, Natalie shows us the hard life of a poor woman who struggles to take care of her children and herself. She gives us the understanding and experience of being a poor mother, who is unhappy with marriage and feels unsatisfied with life. The freedom of birds helps contrast the woman’s caged life with birds.
I've never heard this song before, but your description makes it sound interesting! I'm especially intrigued by the concept that motherhood is a cage. I hate the fact that, since marriage and motherhood are seen as the only path a woman should take in life, many other women that do not want to marry a man or have children are made to feel isolated. The 'cage' idea accurately describes this trap and how its effects can lead to mental illness and suicide - the bird metaphor relates to this really well too.
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