Thérèse by Maya Hawke Lyrics Meaning – A Deep Dive Into Adolescence and Escapism
Lyrics
She’s stretching out her sore shoulder
Leaning back, eyes closed, reaching up
She’s wishing she was older
Dreaming of an appaloosa
Saddled up, riding out of town
Dreaming of a Shelby cobra
Digging her tires in the ground
Bleeding, bringing in a new year’s mess
Unaware of the stain on her dress
It’s tactless, its a test
It’s just Thérèse
It’s just Thérèse
White kitten in the corner
Obscene
It really says it all
Milk matches her underwear
Get her down
Take her off the wall
She dreams of Marlon in Austin
Their bodies tangled in a net
She thinks of him every so often
When she feels like a space cadet
She empathizes with your feelings
She’s more interested in the ceilings
It’s tactless, it’s a test
It’s just Thérèse
It’s just Thérèse
It’s tactless, it’s a test
It’s just Thérèse
It’s just Thérèse
She reminds me of memories
Sleeping off the growing pains
We were see anemones
Spelling out each others names
Whispering inside our red house
While the adults were a-sleeping
I guess Thérèse is just for me
A quiet I keep on keeping
Thérèse does not belong to you
The horses, cars, and cowboys do
It’s tactless, it’s a test
It’s just Thérèse
It’s just Thérèse
It’s tactless, it’s a test
It’s just Thérèse
It’s just Thérèse
It’s tactless, it’s a test
It’s just Thérèse
It’s tactless, it’s a test
It’s just Thérèse
Maya Hawke’s ‘Thérèse’ is a song that dances on the tightrope of nostalgia and growth, a reverie wrapped in the gauze of adolescence with a brimming desire for escape and becoming. It doesn’t just paint a picture, it weaves a tapestry of yearning and reflection, capturing a moment in time that is both personal and universally relatable.
Through the vivid scenes and snapshots in the lyrics, listeners are invited to interpret the layers of meaning. Hawke’s knack for storytelling resonates throughout the song, prompting the question: What is this cryptic narrative truly about? Is Thérèse an alter-ego, a lost love, or a symbol of Hawke’s own inner journeys? Let us unwrap the song’s enraptured metaphors and subtle disclosures.
1. The Spirit of Thérèse: Nostalgia or Alter-Ego?
Thérèse rises as both character and conceit, her dreams and desires serving as microcosms of youthful longing. The opening stanza introduces a character who yearns for a passage of time, evidenced by her wish to be older and her fantasies of escape through symbols of freedom, such as the appaloosa and the Shelby cobra.
Hawke’s character sketch of Thérèse is rich with the impatience and recklessness associated with young adults standing on the precipice of their future. She evokes a sense of someone not fully formed, stretching both physically and metaphorically, reaching for an identity she has yet to fully grasp.
2. The Underlying Pain of Adolescence
The lyric ‘Bleeding, bringing in a new year’s mess’ deftly conveys a pivotal moment, the onset of maturity, perhaps, marked by both celebration and unnoticed loss. There’s a tragedy in the image of Thérèse, addressed so casually, as if the rituals of growing up include silent sacrifices that go unrecognized even by those experiencing them.
This section of the song encapsulates a universal truth about the teenage years: they are messy, embarrassing, and often laden with moments of inadvertent self-discovery that are both painful and defining.
3. Defiant Sensuality and the Search for Connection
In an age of hyper-connectivity, Thérèse’s dreams of human contact render her vulnerable. Hawke creates an erotic scene with Marlon in Austin, suggesting a longing for physical and emotional intimacy. Yet, it’s Thérèse’s off-handed fixation on ceilings—detached and abstract—that signals a withdrawal into her inner world.
The interplay between sensuality and detachment raises questions about the character’s search for a deeper connection in a world that seems increasingly shallow and disconnected. The white kitten, milk, and underwear form a palette of innocence and burgeoning sexuality, complicating Thérèse’s narrative with a raw, unsettling edge.
4. A Quiet Kept: The Hidden Meaning of Personal Keepsakes
When Hawke sings of memories and childhood games, there’s a shift in tone. The personal becomes poetic, with the singer and Thérèse sharing a nostalgic secret. The ‘quiet’ that is ‘keep on keeping’ suggests a deeper story locked beneath the lyrics, a hidden meaning related to memory and how it shapes us.
One might speculate that Thérèse represents a chapter in Hawke’s own life, a keepsake from the past that continues to influence her present. This snippet of the song invites listeners to look within themselves for their own Thérèses, their own quietly guarded memories of who they once were.
5. The Memorable Lines That Echo Long After Listening
The refrain ‘It’s tactless, it’s a test, It’s just Thérèse’ acts as a chorus, though it refrains from offering closure or comfort. The phrase ‘just Thérèse’ diminishes the concerns and complexes of the character into something dismissible, yet the repetition betrays an obsession, an inability to let go.
Hawke’s lyrical economy throughout the song ensures that every word carries weight, and the two lines ‘Thérèse does not belong to you / The horses, cars, and cowboys do’ resonate as an anthem of possession and detachment, a reminder that we are all in pursuit of something or someone that, ultimately, we cannot own.
