For this week's poetry assignment I submit a song/poem by Tori Amos. Usually her lyrics are hard to understand because they often do not make much sense.

Winter

Snow can wait, I forgot my mittens
Wipe my nose, get my new boots on
I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter
I put my hand in my fathers glove

I run off where the drifts get deeper
Sleeping beauty trips me with a frown
I hear a voice you must learn to stand up for yourself
Cause I cant always be around

He says when you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that Ill always want you near
You say that things change my dear

Boys get discovered as winter melts
Flowers competing for the sun
Years go by and Im here still waiting
Withering where some snowman was

Mirror mirror wheres the crystal palace
But I only can see myself
Skating around the truth who I am
But I know, dad, the ice is getting thin

When you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that Ill always want you near
You say that things change my dear

Hair is grey and the fires are burning
So many dreams on the shelf
You say I wanted you to be proud of me
I always wanted that myself

When you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses have gone ahead
I tell you that Ill always want you near
You say that things change my dear

Never change

All the white horses

I think in this poem, the speaker, possibly Tori, writing/talking to her father and relating into the poem what he used to tell her. The poem changes tenses through out, from I to you. I think the line "when you gonna make up your mind" is the beginning of what her father would tell her. It does sound fatherly, like father's love, when you read it on its own. Additionally, a father would love their child and not want them to change into something that isn't who they really are. I love the metaphor about the white horses. I am still not clear what that is referring to, whether it is adulthood, her friends who have blossomed into adults, or something else.

I do not think that this poem is about a crisis, but rather, about questioning and sadness. If this poem is about adolescence, and the bumps in the road, then the father's words would act as mollification and comfort. In any case, it is always good to know that your parents love you and accept you, which is what I feel the chorus is telling. I especially love the image of "I put my hand in my father's glove." The first stanza seems like it is from a child's perspective as they endeavor out into the world, perhaps in this case meaning that she sets out to follow in her father's footsteps aka the glove? I think that the sleeping beauty is perhaps herself as she is realizing she is becoming an adult? It could also represent self awareness.

I also like how the poem sort of comes full circle and is telling a story--from childhood to now, at the end, the poem reads like the speaker is now an adult. There are dreams on a shelf--indicating that the speaker has lived enough to have dreams to shelve--and in this stanza it is very much like a conversation between a daughter and her father. I just get the image of so many years and winters have gone past, and yet, they are still close, and sit beside the fire, he is now older as is she, and he maintains what he has for all the years, that he will always want her near. I think this is a very sweet and sentimental poem full of wonderful imagery. There are many fun things to think about here--my reading this as a father's love for a growing child is only one interpretation.