Phil has talked in an interview about some motifs of this song:
"For me, looking at the songs that I used to make, before this, I was more deeply a symbol-user. The older songs are a lot about looking at the world around me and finding meaning in these things that are just things. Light is hitting the mountain in a beautiful way. Is that just the light of the sun in space hitting this rock and snow on earth? Just stuff? The physical world itself — it doesn’t care. It just is. And so when someone close to you dies, the line is shifted really drastically about what is meaningful and what isn’t.
This record is just me trying to be — well, I wasn’t even trying. It’s just where my head is now … Gosh, I don’t know how to formulate this sentence. I guess I haven’t thought about it enough to know where I stand. I want things to be meaningful. The fly that is buzzing around, on the album, in the room where she died — I want that to be a symbol, but I know it’s not. Like you’re saying, you’re embarrassed about it. It’s this complicated back-and-forth about knowing that you are thirsty for meaning (…). It’s not poetic. And so that’s what I meant [by] “All poetry is dumb.” Profound thoughts and profound experiences get revealed to be tricks that we play on ourselves, and poetry gets revealed to be just, like, some dumb words that somebody put in an interesting order. All the books on my shelves, when I would go to them to look for help with my anguish, they all just seemed so crass. They didn’t get it. Those books don’t understand. Nobody understands. [Laughs.] The universe, nobody understands my agony, or my questioning, and it’s this shift in what in the world around us could possibly be meaningful or helpful. It’s like a closing-down of openness. I became less receptive to help and inspiration."
Real Death
Mount Eerie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Someone's there and then they're not
And it's not for singing about
It's not for making into art
When real death enters the house, all poetry is dumb
When I walk into the room where you were
And look into the emptiness instead
All fails
My knees fail
My brain fails
Words fail
Crusted with tears, catatonic and raw
I go downstairs and outside and you still get mail
A week after you died a package with your name on it came
And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret
And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed
A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now
You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known
Deep down would not include you
Though you clawed at the cliff you were sliding down
Being swallowed into a silence that's bottomless and real
It's dumb
And I don't want to learn anything from this
I love you
Mount Eerie's song Real Death is a heart-wrenching and deeply personal account of the lead singer Phil Elverum dealing with the sudden loss of his wife, Geneviève Castrée, due to pancreatic cancer. The song begins with the simple and profound statement, “Death is real.” Elverum is blunt in his assessment that death is not something to be celebrated or romanticized. Instead, true death enters a home and leaves those left behind to deal with the emptiness and lifeless void of their loved one's loss. Elverum soulfully sings that when confronted with death, all poetry is rendered useless, and eloquence turns to silence. As Elverum walks into the room where Geneviève once stood, he is struck with the emptiness and the realization that all has failed, from his knees to his brain and words.
Line by Line Meaning
Death is real
Death is an actual occurrence that happens to people.
Someone's there and then they're not
One minute someone is alive, and the next minute they are gone forever.
And it's not for singing about
Death should not be romanticized or made to sound beautiful.
It's not for making into art
Death should not be used as inspiration for creating art.
When real death enters the house, all poetry is dumb
When someone dies, it is impossible to articulate the grief that follows, which makes poetry feel insignificant.
When I walk into the room where you were
When the singer enters a room where someone they loved used to be alive.
And look into the emptiness instead
They see the physical absence and lack of that person instead of their presence.
All fails
Everything feels like it falls apart in the face of such loss.
My knees fail
The artist's legs feel weak in response to their grief.
My brain fails
Their thoughts and ability to focus are overwhelmed by their grief.
Words fail
The singer cannot find the right words to express their feelings of loss.
Crusted with tears, catatonic and raw
The artist feels overwhelmed with emotion and immobile, numb from their tears.
I go downstairs and outside and you still get mail
Life moves on and reminders of the person who passed keep coming.
A week after you died a package with your name on it came
Even though the person has died, their life's actions (such as ordering a package) continue to reveal themselves.
And inside was a gift for our daughter you had ordered in secret
The person who died had already thought about and planned for a future without them.
And collapsed there on the front steps I wailed
The artist's grief overwhelms them and causes them to become emotional.
A backpack for when she goes to school a couple years from now
The person who died had planned for their child's future.
You were thinking ahead to a future you must have known
The person who died knew they were not going to be around for their child's future, but still planned for it.
Deep down would not include you
They innately knew they were not going to be around for their child's future.
Though you clawed at the cliff you were sliding down
The person who died struggled with their impending death.
Being swallowed into a silence that's bottomless and real
The person who died went through an irreversible process that resulted in them being gone forever.
It's dumb
The idea of a life being cut short by death is hard to understand and process.
And I don't want to learn anything from this
The singer does not see their grief as a teachable moment, but rather a tragic experience.
I love you
Despite the pain of loss, the artist still loves the person who has passed away.
Lyrics © SC PUBLISHING DBA SECRETLY CANADIAN PUB.
Written by: Phillip Whitman Elvrum
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind