Metaphors In Media

I chose to analyze the song Drops of Jupiter by Train because of its extended space metaphor. Here are the lyrics:

Now that she's back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there's a time to change, hey
Since the return from her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey

But tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way
To see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated?

Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star?
One without a permanent scar
And then you missed me
While you were looking for yourself out there?

Now that she's back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the constellation, hey
She checks out Mozart while she does Tae-Bo
Reminds me that there's room to grow, hey

Now that she's back in the atmosphere
I'm afraid that she might think of me as
Plain ol' Jane told a story about a man
Who was too afraid to fly so he never did land

But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance
To dance along the light of day
And head back to the Milky Way?

And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?
Was it everything you wanted to find?
And then you missed me
While you were looking for yourself out there

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you
Even when I know you're wrong?

Can you imagine no first dance, freeze-dried romance
Five-hour phone conversation
The best soy latte that you ever had, and me?

But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance
To dance along the light of day
And head back toward the Milky Way?

But tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way
To see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated?

And tell me, did you fall for a shooting star?
One without a permanent scar
And then you missed me
While you were looking for yourself?

And did you finally get the chance
To dance along the light of day?
And did you fall for a shooting star?
Fall for a shooting star?
And now you're lonely looking for yourself out there

My interpretation:

I believe this song is about the emotions a friend or lover feels when their loved one decides to grow apart from them and chooses a different life path. This is made evident through the metaphor of space, such as the first line "Now that's she back in the atmosphere." This line is a metaphor for the singers loved one coming back into his life after escaping reality or "the atmosphere." I interpret it as his lover leaving her smaller life and town to explore the world and getting caught up in all the superficial intricacies only once again to return back to home.

The metaphor of space is extended throughout the song by using diction such as "Milky Way, constellation, and shooting star." These all show how she got caught up in her new life and forgot about her roots down on earth. This is shown in lines such as "And tell me, did Venus blow your mind? Was it everything you wanted to find? And then you missed me. While you were looking for yourself out there." In this line Venus is a metaphor for the new life she was chasing after, and he is asking was it all that it was cracked up to be? He implicitly answers the question because he states that she missed him regardless. This reminds me of the saying “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”

The lyrics depict his lover changing by using a metaphor of the seasons: "She listens like spring" or "She acts like summer." Just as the seasons change so has his lover after her journey.

One last metaphor I thought was interesting was heaven as the destiny she was after: “To see the lights all faded. And that heaven is overrated?” This is similar to the Venus metaphor in that both as her search for the better life, but the use of heaven emphasizes the goal or dream she was after in her new life. Just as some people strive to live a life to lead to heaven. He mocks her dreams by stating that heaven or her dream destiny was in fact over rated and that everything surrounding it, “the lights”, were not as bright, or as great as they seemed from far way.