Alone

Something of a psychological ramble song, it is musically and melodically uninteresting (mostly) but serves as a lullaby pretty well if you want to have fucked up children. Very sleepy music, and a traditional bass line that just plunks up and down in a lazy way.

I think the most interesting thing about this song is its rhyme scheme. Ween as a general rule is not a band whose lyrics are ocean deep, and normally their lyrics walk a line between offensive and silly. But this actually has some meaning and its rhymes in the first and third lines of every stanza are true rhymes instead of just approximations like many bands. For instance:

When the life inside no doubt has died
And you've turn your head away
You tried to pay, but at the end of the day,
it's you again, alone

Alone, confined--the mess in your mind
When you can't relate to them
You've reaped and sown, but little is known
by those who aren't alone

This song is © 1991 by Ween, Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp/Ver Music/Browndog Music/BMI.

The Pod
Next song on this album: Moving Away
CST Approved

Alone

Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were- I have not seen
As others saw- I could not bring
My passions from a common spring-
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow- I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone-
And all I lov'd- I lov'd alone-

Then- in my childhood- in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still-
From the torrent, or the fountain-
From the red cliff of the mountain-
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold-
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by-
From the thunder, and the storm-
And the cloud that took the form
(When all the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

It's in the winter, to a job I don't like--at the weather bureau, actually--so I spend the night before, like all the nights before, conversing with my colleagues in the College of Illuminati of Fenwick House, uncovering the secrets of the universe.

I sit in the subway car, jammed standing room only, silent and slightly sick at being up so early after being up so late. The subway is exposed out of the tunnel, unprotected, stalled in the winter. The only sound a scream.

"What I had not counted on was discovering how close a man could come to dying and still not die, or want to die." A saga of both the mental and physical problems he came up against (like nearly dying from carbon monoxide poisoning).

You can spend days at a time praying for moments alone. Sometimes its not until you go to sleep at night; when no one is around, do you well an truly feel you can relax. As you lie in the dark and quiet with nothing but your mind for company, an instance of satisfactory peace will wash over you, as you have time for yourself and to reorganise your thoughts.

However, this feeling you have waited so long for is destroyed almost immediately because, as you lie alone in the night, you suddenly crave the warmth of a lover, the light conversation of a friend, or possibly the comfort of having your family close. Every person or thing you spent all day trying to evade, or hoping they would go away, you suddenly crave with every fibre of your being. It is human nature to socialise, so as you lie there in the dark, gradually but most surely, overwhelming feelings of loneliness wash over you as silently crave everything you love.

On the other hand being alone arguably is an almost impossible feat. Soon a new movement will begin, as you lie there contemplating how pathetic your life feels when your all alone, sounds of the night also creep in. It's not long before you can hear the deafening sound of the person in the next room breathing, the cat outside meowing that some sod has forgotten to feed, kids out in the street, living the life by chatting loudly by the rubbish bins, with every word that comes out their mouths being crystal clear. Late night drivers, animals and possibly even a train in the distance are all of a sudden oh so apparent as you realise the time alone you prayed for has still not come. The deafening silence you feared minutes ago never existed; once again your resentment is back as you say to yourself

"Could I not just have a minutes peace."

Any feeling of being lonely dissipate as you resent the fact you cant be alone, sadness and fear are washed away as you forget your previous emotional cycle; hating everything that stands in the way of your being alone.

Human psychology is an interesting topic, we tend to want what we cannot have, however, is it possible to want something that can never be attained, or to achieve being alone while standing in a room full of people?

A*lone" (#), a. [All + one. OE. al one all allone, AS. an one, alone. See All, One, Lone.]

1.

Quite by one's self; apart from, or exclusive of, others; single; solitary; -- applied to a person or thing.

Alone on a wide, wide sea. Coleridge.

It is not good that the man should be alone. Gen. ii. 18.

2.

Of or by itself; by themselves; without any thing more or any one else; without a sharer; only.

Man shall not live by bread alone. Luke iv. 4.

The citizens alone should be at the expense. Franklin.

3.

Sole; only; exclusive.

God, by whose alone power and conversation we all live, and move, and have our being. Bentley.

4.

Hence; Unique; rare; matchless.

Shak.

⇒ The adjective alone commonly follows its noun.

To let or leave alone, to abstain from interfering with or molesting; to suffer to remain in its present state.

© Webster 1913.

A*lone", adv.

Solely; simply; exclusively.

© Webster 1913.