Literary References for the song: And I Let Them

And I Let Them is one of my favorite songs I have written. Understated and emotionally dense, it captures better than anything the hard times I have had to go through. The song is also full of symbolism and allusions.

“I keep my smile, as fox eats me alive” - this line comes from Greek Mythology. A Spartan boy who escaped camp to find food to feed his starving stomach returned with a fox for dinner. Upon being caught, the boy hid the fox underneath his shirt. While being questioned, the fox began to eat the boy from inside his shirt. The boy made no change in his face as he was being eaten alive so as to not receive punishment. Though he died, he then became an example of Spartan toughness and strength.

“I paint the perfect portrait, hide it away” - this line comes from Oscar Wilde and his novel " The Picture of Dorian Gray. In the novel Gray maintains youthful looks but hides a portrait of himself that shows his true nature. The more he sins the more grotesque his portrait becomes.

“Let the dead be dead. Is that what Sarah said?” - this line was inspired by my favorite song by the band Death Cab for Cutie (What Sarah Said). The song is about a lover waiting as his beloved Sarah dies in a hospital room. The end of the song culminates in Sarah sharing her final thoughts with him as she passes into the dark.