To Bring You My Love by PJ Harvey Lyrics Meaning – Unearthing the Depth of Devotion
Lyrics
I been down for years
Jesus, come closer
I think my time is near
And I’ve traveled over
Dry earth and floods
Hell and high water
To bring you my love
Climbed over mountains
Traveled the sea
Cast down off heaven
Cast down on my knees
I’ve lain with the devil
Cursed god above
Forsaken heaven
To bring you my love
To bring you my love
To bring you my love
To bring you my love
I know he’s gonna be here
You know he’s gonna be here
Yeah, alright
Forsaken heaven
Cursed god above
Lay with the devil
Bring you my love
To bring you my love
To bring you my love
To bring you my love
In the realm of music where words intertwine with melodies to excavate the rawest form of human expression, PJ Harvey’s ‘To Bring You My Love’ stands as an introspective journey of devotion, sacrifice, and transcendental yearning. This 1995 ballad, at its core, is a tumultuous and passionate exploration of love in its most extreme and unconditional form.
Deciphering the layers of Harvey’s haunting lyrics is akin to wandering through a spiritual and emotional labyrinth, where each verse carries the weight of a lover’s unrelenting quest. What follows is not just an investigative dive into the meaning behind the words, but an excavation of the profound and sometimes hidden messages beneath the surface of PJ Harvey’s lyrical odyssey.
The Enigmatic Pilgrimage of the Soul
At the very onset, ‘To Bring You My Love’ appears to be charting a path across physical landscapes – deserts, floods, hell, high water, and mountains. However, one quickly realizes these are mere metaphors for the singer’s internal journey, reflecting a pilgrim’s spiritual expedition. It’s a tale of someone who grapples with their inner demons, their faith, and their own capacity for love and sacrifice.
PJ Harvey embodies a seeker who has endured the heights of heaven and the depths of hell, in a tireless pursuit of love. The desolate backdrops narrated across the song serve to elevate the gravity of her quest; they are the battlegrounds of the soul where Harvey wages war for the sake of an all-consuming love.
Encountering the Divine and the Damned
Harvey’s invocation of Jesus at the commencement of her pilgrimage ties the song intimately to themes of redemption and divinity. Yet, as the song unfolds, the singer’s plea for proximity to Jesus is starkly juxtaposed with her ‘laying with the devil,’ symbolically forsaking heaven and cursing God.
This interplay of the sacred and profane suggests a narrative of unchaste love, of an affection so powerful that it propels the individual to defy cosmic order. It’s a love that challenges the divine boundaries, placing the earthly act of loving someone above celestial allegiance.
Distilling the Essence of ‘My Love’
The song’s recurring, titular phrase, ‘To bring you my love,’ becomes a mantra that pushes the narrative forward, a testament to the lengths one would go to express the totality of their love. Throughout the track, the repetitions serve as a reaffirmation, a heartbeat to the song’s lifeblood – its unflinching and singular dedication.
Here, PJ Harvey strips the concept of love from its romantic clichés, reconstructing it into a raw and deeply personal crucible, burning away anything but the most essential and driving forces of human emotion.
Unveiling the Hidden Meanings
Hidden within ‘To Bring You My Love,’ is a lamentation of the human condition, emphasizing the omnipresent distance between our mortal yearnings and the elusive divine. PJ Harvey taps into that existential despair with verses that convey both a sense of urgency and inevitable waiting – a dichotomy between the approaching presence (‘I know he’s gonna be here’) and the prevailing tension of ‘the near’.
The song is a vessel containing multitudes: spiritual striving, existential angst, and the fervent desire for union. At the nexus of these elements lies an intense ordeal, one that conflates the waiting for a divine being with the waiting for a mortal lover, casting the listener into a liminal space threaded with desire and anticipation.
The Overwhelming Power of Memorable Lines
Beyond the overarching narrative, certain lines in ‘To Bring You My Love’ haunt the listener, embedding themselves deeply into the psyche. ‘Climbed over mountains, traveled the sea, cast down off heaven, cast down on my knees’ – these words paint a vivid picture of the extremities one faces in their quest for connection.
Moreover, the line ‘I’ve lain with the devil, cursed God above’ carries with it the drama and intensity of a Greek tragedy, capturing the monumental nature of Harvey’s emotional landscape. The artist delivers such lines with a fervor that stays with you, challenging you to confront the depths of your own convictions and passions.
