I had to pick a song out of the metaphorical hat featuring the top 100 Canadian songs. I chose These Eyes by The Guess Who. The essence of the song is of a man tormented by the departure of his wife, and he longs for her to return to him.
In order to capture the song, I focused on two verses:
- The hurtin's on me, yeah
And I will never be free no, my baby, no no
You gave a promise to me, yeah
An’ you broke it, an‘ you broke it, oh no - These eyes are cryin'
These eyes have seen a lot of loves
But they’re never gonna see another one like I had with you
Symbolism:
In both of these verses, the man sings that his love has been broken and that it has left him. I chose to symbolize this by depicting a broken heart flipped upside-down, which has become the tears that he cries.
A broken heart is symbolic in two ways. First there is the obvious meaning that he is brokenhearted. Second is that their marriage (where two people become one), has been broken; so everything that marriage represents—one heart, one love, one life shared together—has been ripped in two and is left incomplete.
Similarly, the fact that the heart has been turned into tears has two meanings. First, there is the clear reference to him crying. Second, by having the heart turn into tears, the tears will inevitably fall, and thus the tears (and his love) will leave him.
The blindfold references the second verse, where his eyes will never see another love like the one he had with his wife. The fact that the blindfold is a superficial handicap (as opposed to actual blindness) shows that he no longer wants to see love. But since a blindfold can be removed, it leaves him open to loving again—that is, if his wife returns to him.
His striped clothes are prison garb, which references the first verse where he will never be free. Therefore, along with the blindfold, for the duration of his sentence—as long as she does not return to him—he will be rendered bound and handicapped.
