Never Love An Anchor - Tumblr Posts
April 27, 2024
Song #79
Never Love an Anchor by The Crane Wives
It was released on August 29, 2015
Fun Fact: In “Never Love an Anchor,” the narrator ruminates on being unable to care for their child. The titular metaphor compares the narrator to an anchor weighing down a ship (their child). The song is one of the more popular on this album, based on Spotify streams and fan engagement.
April 27, 2024
Song #79
Never Love an Anchor by The Crane Wives
It was released on August 29, 2015
Fun Fact: In “Never Love an Anchor,” the narrator ruminates on being unable to care for their child. The titular metaphor compares the narrator to an anchor weighing down a ship (their child). The song is one of the more popular on this album, based on Spotify streams and fan engagement.
Yoohankim lyrics that scratches my brain just right
Home by Cavetown
Get a load of this train wreck His hair's a mess and he doesn't know who he is yet But little do we know, the stars Welcome him with open arms Oh
Time is Slowly Tracing his face But strangely he feels at home in this place
-Kim Dokja
Him during the later part of the story works so well with these words. His deteriorating sense of self, the train wreck ifykyk, being loved by others, being loved by stars (literally), and finding his found family dynamic with others becoming a home for him.
Never Love an Anchor by Crane Wives
I am selfish, I am broken, I am cruel I am all the things they might have said to you Do you ever think of me and my two hands? And wonder why they never soothed your fevers? And wonder why they never tied your shoes? And wonder why they never held you gently? And wonder why they never had the chance to lose you?
-Han Sooyoung/1863rd in particular
Writing a story for that one reader without ever being able to hold him, to tell him she cares for him, a love that’s built on sacrifice and could never love him personally like a parent, and when they meet for the first time face to face, she is a plagiarist writer whose personality don’t work quite well with him, unknowing that she had long carried his life through words alone. And she’d keep writing the story for him, forever, out of selfishness, that’s also love, care and yearning.
Curses by Crane Wives
There's still cobwebs in the corners And the backyard's full of bones Won't you stay with me, my darling When this house don't feel like home? When this house don't feel like home
Oh, ashes, ashes, dust to dust The devil's after both of us Ooh, lay my curses out to rest Make a mercy out of me
-Yoo Joonghyuk
Becoming slowly disconnected from the present time due to regression, death permeating his path and everywhere he could see, even in the 1864th round, having to watch Dokja die over and over again, and uselessly trying to keep him from sacrificing himself. Being life and death companions with this dumbass that inevitably lands him in graver danger than he should be facing, and eventually reaching the conclusion with him, along with finding the truth about his constellation sponsor, and his whole existence that kept that dumbass— a child crying out for help— alive for such a long time.
The song ‘Never love an anchor’ by the crane wives is (in my opinion) a song about a mother that has voluntarily given her child up for adoption, this idea is driven from the quote “On some level I think I always understood, that these hands of mine are clumsy not clever.” mothers are often quoted to have clever hands but her referencing her own as clumsy I believe is a reference to her belief that she couldn’t possibly have been a good mother to this child.
As the song continues she describes her own feelings as it’s stated “It's a secret I keep tucked inside my chest With this heart of mine that's guilty, not remorseful” . It’s clear from this segment that though the mother is guilty for having given up the child but feels no remorse for it, it could reference her knowledge that this child may have a better life than they could ever have with her. She references that “There is love that doesn't have a place to rest, But it would have buried you if it had settled on your shoulders” as though her love would have burdened this child and “buried them” which may in a way represent her love being a foil to the infants childhood if it is to be believe that they wouldn’t have been raised in a good environment.
Mid way through the song the mother quotes “on some level I think I always understood, that a ship could never really love an anchor” referring to herself as the anchor and her baby as the ship, as she lated states “So I did the only thing that I could and severed the rope that set you sailing from my harbor”. The idea of the mother being the ‘anchor’ I think is a reference to a situation where she just seems to be sinking, nothing is going up and the only thing that is above this ocean that she seems to be drowning in is her child, which she describes as letting them “sail from her harbor” another reference to giving up her baby to another family to give them the opportunity to not drown with her.
Near the end of the song, it's stated “You are someone I have loved but never known.” Most mothers whilst their children are in the womb build such unfathomable amounts of love and care for their child despite not actually knowing them. “And you’ll never see the reasons I had, For keeping my claws away when they were close enough to hurt you” depending on what happens when they grow up and what kind of family they are raised with this kid may never actually know who their biological mother is and what the reasons were for her having given them up. She also references her ‘Claws’ which could possibly be referencing herself as the problem implying that she may have caused harm the child if she was to have raised it or it could just be the overwhelming amount guilt she feels for having given her child up kicking in and making her believe that what she has done is for the best.
Alright I’m doing this entire paragraph because it’s my favorite segment of the song. “I am selfish, I am broken, I am cruel,I am all the things they might have said to you.” points to the mothers views of herself, a selfish, broken and cruel woman and assumes others would think the same of her (specifically the families raising her child possibly). The very final part of the song really drives home the fact she is going to be missing the part of being a mother to her child. “Do you ever think of me and my two hands? And wonder why they never soothed your fevers? And wonder why they never tied your shoes? And wonder why they never held you gently?
And wonder why they never had the chance to lose you?” All of these are some kind of reference to what mothers do for their children soothing fevers, tying shoes, and gently holding them. Even the mention of getting ‘the chance to lose you’ can be brought back to the fact that the mother will never have the chance to ever lose her baby as she has already given them up.
There are times when I still wonder about you
You are someone I have loved
but never known
And you'll never see the reasons I had
For keeping my claws away
when they were close enough to hurt you
I am selfish, I am broken, I am cruel
I am all the things they might have said to you
Do you ever think of me and my two hands?
And wonder why they never soothed your fevers?
And wonder why they never tied your shoes?
And wonder why they never held you gently?
And wonder why they never had the chance to lose you?