From the ‘Mockingjay’
‘Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.
Strange things did happen there
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the Hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.
Strange things did happen there
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the Hanging tree,
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run, so we’d both be free.
Strange things did happen there
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the Hanging tree.
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the Hanging tree’
So this was stuck in my mind since so many days. What does this poem means. At the forst reading it seems the guys is trying to meet his beloved secretly at midnight near the tree where he was hanged for murder. But this has something more in it. Maybe the murders lover had something to do with the killing. It’s not until the third verse “The Hanging Tree” begins to get unnerving. You realise the singer of the song is the dead murderer. He’s still in the Hanging tree. And even though he told his lover to flee, he keeps asking if she’s coming to meet him. The phrase ‘where i told you to run so we’d both be free’ is the most troubling. Because at first you think he is talking about when he told her to flee, presumably to safety. But then you wonder if he meant for her to run to him. To death. In the final stanza, it’s clear that that’s what he is waiting for. His lover with her rope necklace, hanging dead next to him in the tree.
Greetings! Very helpful advice in this particular post!
It is the little changes which will make the largest
changes. Many thanks for sharing!