In the Eye

This is a very short song. It only has two verses and a chorus, which repeat in their entirety. The chorus itself is only 12 words long, and there are only 42 individual words in the song altogether.

All of the words are simple and direct and known to elementary school children. In fact, only a few of those words are more than one syllable long: “alive,” “everything,” “inside,” “into,” “memory,” and “myself.”

Yet, as a statement, it is quite powerful in its defiance and strength.

The song doesn't seem to need much interpretation. It doesn't use the word "haunt," but that is the threat it describes. "If you were to kill me... I would burn myself into your memory... I would make you wear me like a scar."

“If you were to kill me,” the speaker implies, “I would haunt you for the rest of your life. The fact that I was able to meet my death while still meeting your gaze would let you know that although you have destroyed my body, you never conquered my spirit, and I continue to defy you even after my physical death.”

An idea that repeats is that of “in.” There are the lines “In the eye,” “into your memory,” “live inside of you,” and even “run through.” The idea is that the speaker would be indelibly embedded into her killer in some sense.

So now killing her is a bad idea for another. Aside from being a crime and a sin, it would not even really result in her death! She would be physically dead, sure, but her memory and spirit would be alive inside her killer! So what’s the point?

Next Song: Night Vision