The Virgin Queen

            On the day that we spoke of Queen Elizabeth we were taught some of her iconic nicknames and one of them sounded familiar to me, but I just couldn't remember where I had heard it. Later that day it hit me, it was from an underground song by Regina Spektor called "The Virgin Queen".

            I must have heard this song when I was about fifteen years old, and back then I had no idea what it was about, besides, I wasn't able to understand the lyrics because it was an old live version.

            Now, seven years later, I'm glad that at least the title and part of the melody stuck around long enough for me to look the song up and finally understand it.

            Regina has a passion for literature and history, so she sometimes alludes to famous writers and historical facts in her music.

            I've decided to broadly write about different aspects of Elizabeth's life with the help of some lyrics from "The Virgin Queen". Since there isn't a clear studio version of this song, I will treat it as a poem.

Headless mother, heartless father...

            This line refers to how her cold-blooded father Henry VIII accused her mother Anne Boleyn of adultery and high treason so she was sentenced to death by decapitation just because he wanted to marry another woman and try to conceive a male heir.

In the bedroom

You must suture up that hole

Where the babies come from

England, oh, England

Never forsake me

Won't you take me to have and to hold?

            Elizabeth was portrayed as the Virgin Queen, so she must have hidden any romantic relationship. It was said that she was married to England, in order to keep her power.

I may be a cruel, crude woman

But in the distance I hear Shakespeare mumbling

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of

Troubled, troubled, troubles

            Queen Elizabeth was very well-educated. She was passionate about dancing, writing and theater. In these lines, Regina emphasizes on her being seen as a cruel woman in contrast to the tenderness implied in a person who enjoys and values art. Also, she quotes lines from Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy, in which it is said he is contemplating suicide.

            At the end of the song, Regina makes noises which apparently mean nothing, but there is a backwards version where you can distinguish that she says "family come home". I believe that this is hidden in the song because Elizabeth had to show herself as a hardhearted woman, and if she ever cared about how disperse her family was, she couldn't have let people know since they would perceive her as a weak person.

           

            In conclusion, I would say this song is about the loneliness in Queen Elizabeth's life. Having such power and responsibility definitely takes her to not being able to lead a "normal" life.

            Finally, even though I considered the lyrics as a poem, I will post the live version if anyone would like to listen to it.