The "Sylvia" in the title refers to Sylvia Plath, the American poet and icon whose lines of poetry were "seared into the page" ( (c) Maggie Nelson), contemplating death, cruelty, violence and love. Charlotte's entire album "Rest" is littered with references to accepting (and not being able to accept) the transient nature of our existence, mainly in soft-song lyrics floating above a catchy disco beat. So if you thought the video was just a weird mash-up of people fainting for no reason and levitating on disco balls or taking in the vista on top of a trash heap, now you now: it's all meaningful and part of a plan. Reassuring, right? We thought so.
Here's the key lyric:
“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead
Sylvia says
I lift my lids and all is born again
Sylvia says"
And here's the original poem by Sylvia Plath:
Mad Girl's Love Song
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"
