Pale September Lyric Evaluation

Pale September, I wore the time like a dress that year
The autumn days swung soft around me, like cotton on my skin
But as the embers of the summer lost their breath and disappeared
My heart went cold and only hollow rhythms resounded from within
But then he rose, brilliant as the moon in full
And sank in the burrows of my keep

And all my armour falling down, in a pile at my feet
And my winter giving way to warm, as I'm singing him to sleep

He goes along just as a water lily
Gentle on the surface of his thoughts his body floats
Unweighted down by passion or intensity

Yet unaware of the depth upon which he coasts
And he finds a home in me
For what misfortune sows, he knows my touch will reap

And all my armour failing down, in a pile at my feet
And my winter giving way to warm, as I'm singing him to sleep
All my armour falling down, in a pile at my feet
And my winter giving way to warm, as I'm singing him to sleep


In the Lyric Evaluation Exercise on page 223 in Ulmer's Internet Invention, he asks for the reader to analyze the relationship of a favorite song's lyrics and the atmosphere of the music.

Fiona Apple's lyrics are some of the most poetic lyrics of a current artist that I've heard. This song is intensely sensual without being obscene, both in the lyrics and the melodic delivery. The lyrical situation is that of love reawakening in Apple's narrator, and the delivery is giving in a slow, ever-so-slightly slurred style which is Apple's specialty, denoting sensory happiness and the losing of oneself in the actions of the lyrics. The style of the music is slow and serene, much like the slow, sleepy transition from chill to warmth that the narrator undergoes.