☝️ Key Points
- The song tells the story of a desperate search for a runaway horse.
- The protagonist pursues the horse day and night, blind to its presence.
- In the end, she finds her beloved horse and attaches herself to it while it attaches to her.
- The song raises the question of who strengthens this connection and who breaks it in the next night.
- It is suggested that love is like smoke, beyond repair.
Interpretation
The lyrics of the song "Ballad of a Runaway Horse" by
Emmylou Harris tell the story of a cowgirl whose horse has run away. She searches desperately for him while the river overflows and the streets are flooded. The bridges collapse under the loss. There is nothing to follow, nowhere to go. Her horse is gone, like the summer and the snow. The crickets break her heart with their song as the day crumbles and the night is false.
She dreams of him galloping by, bending the ferns and trampling the grass. She sees the mud with the well-hammered hoofprint that she nailed to his pace in her youthful dreams. She pursues him all night, she pursues him all day. She is blind to his presence, except to compare her pain here with his punishment there.
Then suddenly, a songbird sings on a branch above a high stream. The sun is warm and the gentle wind rides on a willow tree by the riverbank. The world is sweet and wide and he is there, where the light and darkness meet. The steam rises from him, he is huge and shy and he steps on the moon when he touches the sky.
She ties herself to her galloping horse and he ties himself to the woman in need of help. There is no room, only left and right. There is no time, only day and night. She leans against his neck and whispers softly, "Wherever you go, I will go with you." And together, they turn towards the open field, without whip and without rain.
The lyrics of the song pose the question of who strengthens this connection and who breaks it in the next night. Some say it's him, some say it's her. Some say love is like smoke, beyond repair. So, my darling, let the old outline pass by in the great western sky. I will choose a melody and they will move on. And they disappear like smoke and like this song.