A thorough analysis of Hozier’s “Eat Your Young”
After waking up from his encounter with Paolo and Francesca Dante finds himself in a place where damned souls are tortured by an eternal, dirty, and cold rain that will strike them forever. This is where the gluttonous reside.
Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins but is sometimes interpreted incorrectly. When talking about gluttony, we do not refer to the occasional slice of cake after dinner or a snack before going to bed.
Dante, speaking of gluttony, offers a different interpretation. In medieval times, the gap between the rich and the poor was wide, and it was common for the wealthy to use food as a determination of their power and as an opportunity to exercise their hegemony over those who had no food at all. What Dante criticizes in his grandeous poem is this aspect of the population. An aspect that is therefore inseparably linked to politics and power games.
It’s no coincidence that Dante speaks of the gluttonous in the sixth canto, which as lovers of symmetry notice, in all three canticles (Paradise, Purgatory, Inferno), is always dedicated to a political theme.
Similarly, Hozier offers a dual interpretation: a critique of gluttony and therefore greed but also an interpretation under an extremely political key.
The Irish artist has not hidden his source of inspiration, Inferno, for his album “Unreal Unearth”.
[The album] is arranged in circles, and “Eat Your Young” is gluttony
“Eat Your Young” is not the only song to have felt the influence of the Florentine poet: the entire album is built on an alternation of hidden quotations and evident images, referring to a demonic existence, inherent in the collective mind that Dante had already recounted in 1300.
Song Analysis
[Verse 1]
I’m starvin’, darlin’
Let me put my lips to somethin’
Let me wrap my teeth around the world
Start carvin’, darlin’
I wanna smell the dinner cookin’
I wanna feel the edges start to burn
The protagonist in the first person, with Hozier’s voice (singing almost demonically), is presented as desperate and miserable trying to eat something, highlighting the corrosive power of greed.
However, the most interesting aspect remains the third verse, in which desire, almost becoming lustful (with the mention of “lips” and the excitement derived from “edges that start to burn”), transforms into imperialist ambitions. Infact, morbidly, the teeth tear the world from its freedom and independence, from this grotesque character.
[Pre-Chorus]
Honey, I wanna race you to the table
If you hesitate, the gettin’ is gone
I won’t lie if there’s somethin’ to be gained
There’s money to be made, whatever’s still to come
The continuous comparison between politics and gluttony becomes evident here. The role of money is further emphasized, as something to be gained. The resources on the table are completely exhausted: in the contest, the most desirous one has won, the one who burns the most with the fire of greed.
The alliteration of the sound “G” has the specific function to bring focus to gluttony, and to slow down the pace of the song.
These verses serve as a bridge, aiming to connect the theme of gluttony with the more extreme theme of cannibalism.
[Chorus]
Get some
Pull up the ladder when the flood comes
Throw enough rope until the legs have swung
Seven new ways that you can eat your young
Come and get some
Skinnin’ the children for a war drum
Puttin’ food on the table, sellin’ bombs and guns
It’s quicker and easier to eat your young
The focus shifts to an apostrophe to the listener in which Hozier encourages everyone to have a bit of it, as otherwise, they risk being left behind, never sitting at the winners’ table. The second verse then presents a complete reversal of divine providence and divine justice mentioned in the Bible.
The flood aims (in the Bible or other religious collections) to free humanity from corruption and sins. It is the only way in which water can purify earth from the sins committed by humans.
However, in this case, there is a reversal of this trope: divine providence fails, and men can use a subtle stratagem to survive. A clear political and social interpretation is the reference to rising oceans, which affect the less affluent components of society, while the rich simply “pull up the ladder.” It is important to note that the third track is called “Through Me (The Flood).”
The following verse (“Throw enough rope until the legs have swung”) deals with the same theme, but as the song progresses, each reference takes on a darker meaning-. Infact the line speaks about a rope that hangs, kills, and above all, deludes. Throw enough rope, just enough for people to struggle and give them hope to save themselves.
Seven new ways that you can eat your young
This line is centrale to the song since it introduces the theme of cannibalism. However it is done with a singular sentence, that is familiar to the audiencde.
Hozier himself has stated
“You know, that sort of new BuzzFeed article thing of ‘Fifteen things,’ it’s always an uneven number, it’s always seven or it’s always fifteen. So, that’s why it was seven, I wanted to sort of nod to that ‘Fifteen ways to leave your lover’ type of thing.”
Immediately after the strong and brutal reference, another statement follows, which jars incredibly.
(Skinnin’ the children for a war drum
Puttin’ food on the table, sellin’ bombs and guns)
The innocence of children (is accompanied by war, of which they are the primary victims. This dichotomy is commonly used in literature and for good reason: the state of innocence of children, their imagination, is part of a different world from that of experience where war, bombs, and guns reign. And while the children are eating, the adults sit at the grand table.
[Instrumental Break]
I would like to concentrate also on the use of instruments in the song. Negative space in music is essential for the success of a song. It has the power to let the music breathe and plays a role similar to that of a background landscape in a photograph: when there are subjects (lyrics) present, it tends to take a back seat, but on its own, it has the opportunity to shine with its light. In this case, Hozier’s voice and his elongated vocals harmoniously blend with the instruments, creating a sense of suspense leading into the next part of the song. It almost transports us to a dystopian world, an upside-down world.
[Verse 2]
You can’t buy this fineness
Let me see the heat get to you
Let me watch the dressing start to peel
It’s a kindness, highness
Crumbs enough for everyone
Old and young are welcome to the meal
This part of the song provides quite striking oxymoronic images. After describing in detail the disgusting attitudes of the gluttonous, Hozier speaks of finesse and elegance. But it’s a façade. Like a clock striking, Hozier reminds us how the heat will melt the “dressing” of the powerful, and the author delights in the thought. Almost playfully, he argues that it’s “a kindness”. And what will remain are only their crumbs: from their powerful bodies that have filled and filled, only crumbs will remain, which everyone will adore eating.
[Pre-Chorus]
Honey, I’m makin’ sure the table’s made
We can celebrate the good that we’ve done
I won’t lie if there’s somethin’ still to take
There is ground to break, whatever’s still to come
These verses stand in stark contrast to the preceding pre-chorus. Despite the same structure, a communal experience is depicted, where husband and wife wait and eat together. But there’s something rotten. The good they’ve done refers to the (futile) philanthropy of the rich, who, to feel justified in their exploitation, believe they can buy, much like with medieval indulgences, their ticket to paradise. The last phrase, which alludes to a carpe diem mindset, instead conceals the hypocritical ways of corporations that, today, extract oil, and break the land they cultivate without thinking about tomorrow. Actions they consciously take, aware that they are “eating the young.”
Cannibalism and Dante
In the ninth circle of Hell, Dante also addresses cannibalism, albeit delicately and with many implications. The protagonists are Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggieri, figures from Florentine politics in the fourteenth century.
Dante Alighieri places the Count in “Antenora”, the second zone of the ninth circle of Hell, where traitors to their homeland are punished (Cantos XXXII and XXXIII). Ugolino, immersed in the icy waters of Cocytus, appears as a damned avenger who brutally devours the head of Archbishop Ruggieri. Count Ugolino and his sons were imprisoned alive in a tower. The prisoners, consumed by hunger, died after a long agony; but before dying, Ugolino’s sons begged him to eat their flesh, uttering the phrase:
“Father, it would cause us much less pain if you ate of us: you clothed us in these wretched bodies, now you strip them.”
In doing so, Dante provides information that can be interpreted in two ways: on the one hand, it can be thought that the count, now at the limit of suffering, consumed his sons; on the other hand, Ugolino, after initially resisting the pain, may have been overcome by hunger. The story narrated by Dante is brutal: hunger alternates with the hypothesis of cannibalism, both equally possible. The count is a symbol, in Dante, of a society that has the responsibility of murdering the innocent (children, the young), initially enclosed by Ruggieri but indirectly also by Ugolino, a protagonist of corrupt politics. The lost innocence of children resonates in Dante, and Hozier echoes him.
Conclusions
In the song, Hozier realistically transforms the (legitimized) ambitions of our capitalist society into a demon inherent in everyone. Cannibalism, gluttony, and ambition are primal, carnal, and insidious desires hiding behind the facade of modern civilization.
Hozier’s pessimism and cynicism appear more evident compared to Dante. Dante argued that politics, in its reality, is implicitly demonic, a social disorder stemming from moral corruption: it therefore needs to be placed within the religious framework and guided by it. Hozier, on the other hand, makes it clear that not even religion is capable of overcoming the degeneration we are witnessing: not even divine providence can purify the extreme reality that Hozier describes.