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Arrows Lyrics

I saw you
Down at the station
Your leather suitcase
Burst at the seems
Stay all day
Up in your rooms now
That’s not a problem
You’ve ever seen

Fall on your knees
Wasting your arrows
You found you’ve walked along these halls

I awoke
Up in a bedroom
You’ve gone up hunting
I was asleep
Spend my day
Out at the fountain
That’s not a problem
You’ve had foreseen

Fall on your knees
Wasting your arrows
You found you’ve walked along these halls

Fall on your knees
Wasting your arrows
You found you’ve walked along these halls

Oh it’s no use
at all...
But that light in the church could still remain
Song Info
Submitted by
life_aint_chess On May 25, 2008
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2 Meanings

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Cover art for Arrows lyrics by Vampire Weekend

The song is a narration on the novel 'Brideshead Revisited' by Evelyn Waugh. The first section of the song refers to the main character, Charles Ryder, meeting his 'best and only' friend, Lord Sebastian Flyte at the station before returning to Flyte's estate, Brideshead.

'Stay all day Up in your rooms now That’s not a problem You’ve ever seen'

Refers to Sebastian's decline into alcoholism, a subject that dominates the first half of the book.

'I awoke Up in a bedroom You’ve gone up hunting I was asleep Spend my day Out at the fountain That’s not a problem You’ve had foreseen'

At one point in the novel Sebastian leaves for a hunt but instead decides to go drinking at a local village. Throughout the novel Brideshead's fountain is the centre of dramas in Charles' life, particularly his years of happiness with Sebastian Flyte and much later, a quarrel with his lover Julia Flyte, Sebastian's sister.

'Fall on your knees Wasting your arrows You found you’ve walked along these halls'

At the very end of the novel, Charles, who during the second world war was forced to return to a dilapidated Brideshead, finally finds his religion in the chapel of Brideshead. He at this point had loved and lost both Julia and Sebastian and nearly all connection with the Flytes and Brideshead.

'Oh it’s no use at all... But that light* in the church could still remain'

Finally after he prays at the chapel, he sees the lantern lit over the tabernacle of a chapel that was due to be closed, but remains.

Song Meaning
Cover art for Arrows lyrics by Vampire Weekend

two corrections: "your leather suitcase burst at the seams" "oh it's no use at all"

this song is amazing and i don't know why they didn't put it on the album.

i think "you'd gone out hunting" means that she was seeing other people... while he was asleep in her bedroom. OUCH.

I think its a matter of presence. Compared to the rest of the tracks on Contra, this song isn't 'big' or voluminous sounding. I love the song but its more like their debut material than their latest. It would be cool if they headed in this direction though.

Not Valid

Actually I heard this song was released as a bonus track on the Japanese release for their debut album, so you're right about the sound. But it's definitely not on Contra, which probably means you just downloaded a stupid torrent off Pirate Bay.

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