Poetry Week 4

I submit for this weeks assignment this song/poem which I absolutely love. The version I am partial to is done by Irish group The Corrs featuring Bono. The melody is simple and which allows the listener to focus on the lyrics.

When the Stars Go Blue

Dancin' where the stars go blue
Dancin' where the evening fell
Dancin' in your wooden shoes
In a wedding gown
Dancin' out on 7th street
Dancin' through the underground
Dancin' little marionette
Are you happy now?

Where do you go when you're lonely
Where do you go when you're blue
Where do you go when you're lonely
I'll follow you
When the stars go blue, blue
When the stars go blue, blue
When the stars go blue, blue
When the stars go blue

Laughing with your pretty mouth
Laughing with your broken eyes
Laughing with your lover's tongue
In a lullaby

Where do you go when you're lonely
Where do you go when you're blue
Where do you go when you're lonely
I'll follow you
When the stars go blue, blue
When the stars go blue, blue
When the stars, when the stars go blue, blue
When the stars go blue
When the stars go blue, blue, blue
Stars go blue
When the stars go blue

Where do you go when you're lonely
Where do you go when you're blue, yeah
Where do you go when you're lonely
I'll follow you, I'll follow you, I'll follow you
I'll follow you, I'll follow you, yeah
Where do you go, yeah(repeats out)Where do you go, Where do you go

This poem is full of rich imagery even though the lyrics tend to repeat themselves. I personally love the image of the stars going blue. I like how this image is linked to being lonely: where do you go when you are blue/when the stars go blue. It is neat how the color is the unifying element and how the stars going blue could mean many things--the person (to whom the poem is directed) is the star who goes blue because they are lonely, or the stars in the sky become sad and stop shining their light, thus, going blue. Even though we equate the color blue with sadness, in actuality it is one of the hottest colors, second only to white hot. I like the duality of this meaning--sad and also burning. I also think that the repetition of "I'll follow you" is a little stalker-y, perhaps haunting? I am not sure how it is intended: like a ghost following a person they loved in life? Or a man who loves an unattainable woman? Or a father who loves their child and doesn't want them to suffer lonliness? I could read many relationships into this poem.

There are many puzzling aspects to this poem, namely who is the speaking talking to, especially in the first stanza? I get the feel that they are speaking to a female, since I wouldn't join the word marionette (a little doll or poppette) with anything obviously masculine since girls play with dolls, and also, little girls can be like dolls to their parents. Furthermore, the image just works better in my frame of refference to think of someone yanking a girls strings--it doesn't work nearly as well to envision a man getting his strings pulled in marionette fashion. I want to say that this poem is being spoken to maybe a young girl? With the addition of a wedding dress and words like "pretty," and "broken" further support the idea that the speaker is talking to a woman. Is there a crisis with this person? I am not sure, but the poem asks "are you happy now?" and I feel this is a specific jab, akin to "look at what you have done, are you happy now?"

Who dances in wooden shoes and a wedding gown? I love this pairing. I can see a young girl twirling in a voluminous dress wearing dutch wooden shoes, and her twirling is made clunky because of this. It is an unusual image--I wonder if it is meant to infer that in spite of getting something desirable (marriage) this comes with something unfortunate, hence, the wooden shoes? This unique pairing is the line I find most surprising.