I ought to bring this up because it is a song I’ve loved since I first listened to it and now can love even more! Furthermore, I don’t have anything by Ed Sheeran posted here before this (at least not currently visible), and that’s pretty much a crime, on my book, as I did listen to his music plenty and his work became a part of what shaped me.
This song, in particular, can be such a maze of multiple interpretations or messages to draw out of it. I’ve been listening to it lately and I’m mind-blown by all it encompasses, WHILE being oddly specific nonetheless. The first time I listened to it, I was vaguely relating, mostly connecting with the mood, attitude, and orientation of it. But now? It’s like, HOLY DAMN, we’ve LIVED.
I may not always be a romantic person, but I’ll definitely always be sentimental. If I’m not, something’s wrong. I have died. My spirit is blocked. Or something else - and it’s momentary. So I can especially appreciate this one as a piece that revolves around sentimentality rather than romanticism. And particularly because it goes out to lived experiences and what made those experiences wonderful, albeit bittersweet at times.
I’m also immediately captured by the theme of castles, because of reasons I haven’t yet made completely obvious but they are there and they will be made so eventually. Thus, it is more than a mere bonus that they came into focus. Can you really be an artistic storyteller if you can’t transport yourself to medieval periods at least once? It is so fitting!
There’s so much I love about this song that I could not pinpoint it all. The tale of running away, all the individual mentions, the scattered details, including making friends and losing them through the years as well as how they hadn’t seen the roaring fields in so long. How it even goes, “And I miss the way you make me feel. And it’s real.” Jeez. I don’t know what it is like for you but, for me, it is the perfect scrapbook.
“I’m on my way. I still remember these old country lanes. When we did not know the answers…”
How far we’ve come and how far we’re yet to go, huh? 😌
