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Nov 4th 2017!⃝This song took on a different meaning for me when my daughter found out that the fetus she was carrying had died in her womb.
"6:30 winter morn; Snow keeps falling silent down;
A rose by any other name; Eva leaves her Swanbrook home" [refers to her geographical location and the quiet passing of the child in the mother's womb. The fetus has died and is preparing to move on from the safety of the mother's body]
"A kindest heart which always made; Me ashamed of my own" [refers to the guilt a parent feels when harm comes to an innocent child, even though it is out of their hands]
"She walks alone but not without her name" [refers to the tradition to memorialize the child by naming her, she is alone because she never becomes part of this world]
The chorus describes the process of her stillbirth, leaving the biological constraints of a medically sterile "cruel, children's game,"and her entering her role as angel. "There's no friend to call her name" because she doesn't experience childhood.
"The Good in her will be my sunflower field" [the child is named after a flower to serve as a visual reminder of her indelible presence]
"Mocked by man to depths of shame; Little girl with life ahead; For a memory of one kind word; She would stay among the beasts; Time for one more daring dream; Before her escape edenbeam; We kill with her own loving heart"
[refers to many symbolic connections between motherhood and the patriarchy, the politicization of women's bodies, and how men view women. The mother creates her own birth/death and grief experience, knowing that the child she is receiving is already gone, and picturing the child riding edenbeam to angelhood. The last line refers to the act of holding that child, the pain it causes, and challenges of moving ahead after such a horrible loss.
