"March Violets" The Song with its music and lyrics, Part Two

After hearing the song in full, I can sense a sadness in it that I did not from a simple reading of the lyrics. I think maybe there is a sense of loss connected to the people. These people are outside of the accepted society, and it is hard to tell them apart from "regular people." Young people more and more are not participating in society and feel lost. The song seems to be a warning to these people that they need to find direction in their lives because there will be a time when "it's too late/ to show up smashed." A different type of war, a battle for adolescence, a call for them to think of their futures, to be passionate about something.

Classmates ideas: War, can't tell the armies apart. War with yourself, or the enemy who looks just like you. Soldiers look alike on a bloody battlefield. "Ides of March" is a military term. March is named after the God Mars- the god of War. I did not know this. I knew it from Shakespeare but from so long ago that I couldn't remember it was from "Julius Caesar." This idea makes so much more sense to me than my own interpretation. Classmate also talked about nihilism, that you can't hold onto anything when you have no faith in anything. It's funny how one song can have so many different meanings. Cynical, pairing of people. Animal imagery. Biblical imagery. Two by two, dust to dust.

The idea is that you can find meaning without relying on the intention of the author, although for me I think there validity to taking into account author intentionality.