Paradox

Gravity ~ Sara Bareilles
The main essence of this song is that the singer wants to get away from a man -maybe she is in a bad relationship, or maybe (and this is my personal interpretation) the relationship is over and she needs to move on- but in any case, she can't because she keeps "falling into his gravity." Paradox comes into play in the lines "you hold me without touch/you keep me without chains." Both of these contradict themselves: how can you hold something without touching it? How can you keep something from leaving without some sort of chain? (It doesn't have to physically be a chain.) Yet somehow they both still make sense. Another paradox comes in the next line, "I never wanted anything so much than to drown in your love and not feel your rain." Rain is water, and you need water to drown. How can you not feel the rain if you are drowning in it? Another paradox comes in in the second verse, specifically in the phrase "fragile strength." "Fragile strength" is an oxymoron because being fragile and being strong are opposites. Yet somehow, in the context of this song, this line as well makes sense. This song if you just listen to it, makes perfect sense, but when you really look at the lyrics, becomes extremely confusing due to all the paradoxes. That's not a bad thing, though, actually I think that that is the exact essence of the relationship Sara is trying to convey with this beautiful song.

Lyrics