Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch âą No registration required âą HD streaming
Some is better than none. Some is better than none. Some is better than none. Walking for three minutes, is better than nothing. Drinking a glass of water and eating a snack, is better than nothing. Wiping down the counter, is better than nothing. Small things are not nothing. Small things are not nothing. Small things are not nothing. You donât have to achieve grand things if all youâre capable of right now is the smaller things. They are still achievements. Donât do nothing just because you donât think youâre capable of doing bigger things, just do something youâre capable of today. ïżŒ
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch âą No registration required âą HD streaming
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch âą No registration required âą HD streaming
okay so i talk abt loving hozier all the time but i never rlly delve into how fucking significant his music is. and i think, in light of the recent election, itâs time to do so
so hereâs my analysis on hozierâs song âswan upon ledaâ
(ignore if some things are worded weirdly, this was initially written for my sister & my sister only. so it might seem like iâm talking to u as a friend, thatâs why!) also if there are any inaccuracies in the myths' interpretations, PLEASE lmk!
anyway here it is!!!
So, before we get into the lyrics themselves letâs take a little peeksie at the songâs background!
Not only is this one of his most political works, but it was also published three years after he literally ghosted the world. And that only makes its debut so much more significant seeing as heâd taken the time to make sure heâd have everyoneâs attention when releasing it.
Also, the title is so so so fucking important to take into account when studying this piece of fucking ART. Itâs based off of the Greek myth âLeda and the Swanâ. In this tale, Zeus is heavily attracted to a woman named Leda and transforms her into a swan before raping and impregnating her.
In turn, Hozier connects this story (and also the overarching theme of Zeus being the most powerful god despite being a rapist and child predator COUGHTRUMPCOUGH) to the way women are denied their reproductive rights & how these horrid occurrences effect all of those involved, not just the woman who bears the burden.
A husband waits outside
A crying child pushes a child
Into the night
She was told he would come this time
He paints a picture here, putting an unnamed protagonist into a modern-day tale of patriarchally inflicted torment. The waiting husband symbolizes Zeus in the ancient context as well as an unnamed rapist in modern context. He waits and waits, never acting. He stands outside, so very close to where the problem lies and yet does nothing.
The crying child is inspired by Leda & made into the songâs protagonist, depicted as underage and therefore not able to give her full consent to this outcome. The child she pushes is the one that had been forced upon her, it going into the night symbolizing an untold future. Something she hadnât asked for and yet is thrusted into doing. Her fear means nothing to the waiting husband & means even less to society as a whole. So, she does it scared. She does it with tears streaming down her face because deep, deep down she knows she has nobody to aid her in this despite having been promised to have help; having been promised that he would come this time.
Without leaving so much as a feather behind
To enact, at last, the perfect plan
This illustrates the parallelism of Leda having been turned to a swan and the unnamed child having been forced into the life of a mother. Not leaving a feather behind, to Leda, represents the lack of proof sheâd had to Zeusâs cruelty. Heâd simply found her, transformed her, impregnated, transformed her back, and left. Now, had a feather been left, sheâd have had proof. Sheâd have been believed. But that kind of miracle never happens for rape victims, now does it? No, instead she was forced to carry a ton more children by a husband that didnât believe that sheâd been raped by Zeus. This, in many ways, connects to real day occurrences that I donât believe I need to digress on each individually. Though, I happily would if it proves my point mores.
The perfect plan he speaks of is the men getting away with it. In every tale, in every real-time situation, the men get away. They get what they want from the woman, leave her (and their newly formed fetus) to rot, and leave to return to their wives. The perfect plan, is it not?
The gateway to the world
Was still outside of reach of him
Would never belong to angels,
Had never belonged to men.
This. This is why I love Andrew Hozier-Byrne, ladies and gentlemen.
As he speaks of a âgateway to the worldâ, heâs referring to childbirth. To bring a child into the world is a gateway, correct? Itâs a bit of inexplicable divinity, pregnancy. To create an entire being with naught but your own bodily organs and cells? Those of which had been made by a woman before you? Yeah, itâs pretty fucking insane to me. Anyway.
Okay back on topic. The point is, this amazing occurrence he discusses is said to still out of reach to âhimâ. This unnamed male figure can be both Zeus in the myth or the husband in the modern altercation. This means that, despite them having forced themselves upon these beautiful souls, they havenât a say in gateway. They donât have a single fucking important role to play in the birth itself. Theyâre just the sperm.
And then Hozier goes even further. Not only does he say that the rapists are unfit for the sanctitude of childbirth, but heaven itself is unfit. The angels up above. Zeus. God. Whatever religious aspect you want to praise; it doesnât hold a candle to the divinity that is a woman. As are the men. All men. Mankind itself, if you will. Regardless of your role or title or holiness, youâre all fucking useless when it comes to the sacred act of conceiving, creating, then bearing another human.
After the first chorus, the image alters to another scenario:
A grandmother smuggling meds
Past where the god-child soldier, Setanta, stood dead
Our graceful turner of heads
Weaves through the checkpoints like a needle and thread
This shows a grandmother stealing medicine for an abortion, likely for a daughter or granddaughter. This shows the generational struggle to make the right choice. As it feels both revolutionary and also something sheâd been doing her whole life. Fighting for rights.
Now, Setanta, as referred to in the song, is based off of an Irish myth. In this myth, Setanta is the name of a child who had killed Culannâs guard dog in self-defense and therefore felt guilty. In a fit of grief for the life heâd stolen, Setanta offered to take its place and thereby became known as the âHound of Culannâ. His story is actually really interesting to read about, but I wonât go into too much detail on every depicted myth. As Hozier refers to the checkpoint soldiers as Setanta, he claims theyâd âstood deadâ at their watch â which goes to show that these soldiers are young (as Setanta had been) and he therefore protests against the way theyâre surrendering their full lives to this ruined system of oppression that they enforce.
Someoneâs frightened boy waves her on
She offers a motherâs smile,
and soon sheâs gone.
The gateway to the world
The gun in a trembling hand
This right here is absolutely fucking amazing. Hozier connects both oppressor and oppressed, humanizing the grandmother to be retrieving meds for an unplanned pregnancy & also personifying the young boy as someoneâs child who needed something so simple as a motherâs kindness to keep him going.
The way he does this goes to show what a talented person he is. Being able to make your audience sympathize with both the boy and the grandma is fucking magic. Rather than making the soldiers wholly evil and merciless, he made them children. The same children the lady is trying to prevent bringing into this world.
When nature unmakes the boundary
The pillar of myth still stands
The swan upon Leda
Occupier upon ancient land
While the first chorus is a reminder of childbirthâs right to be protected and not put in the hands of religion or men, the second chorus ties it all together by showing the repetition in history and how itâs bound to repeat itself so long as man remains lustful for power. This shows that greed and brutality is an undeniable way to keep this horrid pattern living on. He laments that nature did not intend to have one rule over another (men over women; society over youth). And yet, somehow, itâll forever remain unavoidable.
The pillar of myth still stands. That crumbling foundation it had been built o remains, standing tall as more and more men come to repeat it. And, in all honesty, I doubt itâll ever end. The child will continue to push the child. The husband will continue to wait. The grandmother will continue to smuggle her rights. The boy will continue to tremble. And mother nature will continue to watch with a frown on her face as mankind sets more pillars atop her divinity.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch âą No registration required âą HD streaming