Nirvana – Heart-Shaped Box lyrics

I’m a Pisces woman, and him referencing “ she eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak” can mean two things. Pisces woman by nature are some of the MOST nurturing and intuitive humans ever. She will nurture everything about a person when they are hurting, physically or mentally, till the pint of their own exhaustion or demise. Or it could also mean this. Pisces women, like myself, need a man that is a strong protector, if that man shows that they are weak in places where we need them to be it’s a complete turnoff and we will turn away from them and go elsewhere. I came to this site looking for answers and every persons so far seems to me farthest from the truth. I’m giving my take on it because it has always plagued me, and wished we could have found out before he died. Hopefully we will find out one day!

Interesting how kurt identified with Hamlet, the prince of Denmark right towards his end, in his suicide note. What I find interesting in this song, are all the flower referecences; angel's hair, babies breath, and meat eating orchids. In shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia (Hamlet's once love interest) in her madness, wears a "fantastic garland" made up of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples. She was so deep in melancholie, and trapped by famliy(and social) dynamics, that she could only express herself (sometimes in song) by making vague, abstract raferences to flowers that had then historical meanings. Her feelings and the people around her were so bound together, like a pile of peperclips - that to pull at one, you had to pull at all of them; to undertand her, those in her circle would have had to be willing to honestly look at themselves in the mirror and know their true nature, but they were unwilling, or unable, and therefore Ophelia's outburts were all painted with the same 'madness brush' and she became their scapegoat. So like Ophelia. Kurt in song wears a garland of flowers. I guess the question is, what are Kurt's reasons and what are his cryptic meanings, and reserved for what audience exactly: his lover, his God, himself, or all of them. The refrain is also kind of cryptic. Two simple line: it's as if, in the first line, he is trying to make a stand, confronting the oppressor(s), but then in the second line, he sort of whimps out and says the opposite. Or maby musically, it's inner voice/outer voice blurring, were the lister doesn't really know what is trully tought or said (or double-spoken). Perhaps, it takes on a different meaning to a different audience (a lover, himself, or God), with each repetition of the refrain.

I think Kurt's blaming his mother about the fact she has gaved him birth. He think he was a mistake and he mad about his mother. 'Heart Shaped Box' - a uterus. 'magnat tar pit trap' - the birth to an ugly world. 'Cancer' - an involuntary development of cells - like an unwanted pregnant.
'Broken hymen of your highness, I'm left black' his mother finally had s**- but he his the side effect.
An Explanation about the umbilical noose is unnecessary I think.

The first line in the song "she eyes me like a pisces" has meaning. A pisces (Kurt Cobain was a pisces by his birthdate) has a need to fit in and feel connected to a person and the world at large. This song is about that. How despite wanting to leave the relationship, he can't because of this need. This woman also "attacks" him when he's weak, and then cares for him after, making him dependant on her. This gives the effect that he can't live without her, even though he desperatly wants to. The line "your advice" is repeated many times, and this may be why he feels like he can't leave.

Kurt is talking about his addiction to heroin in the first four lines. He says "she eyes me like a pisces when i am weak". Speaking about coming down off of heroin and being weak from it. The heroin is just eyeing him down until he uses again and is back "up" on his binge.
"ive been locked inside your heart shaped box for weeks". His love for the drug has locked his soul into a metaphoric box of only caring about using.
"i've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap". Again saying that he is trapped by the heroin(which is a tarry substance) and by using the words drawn, magnet, pit, trap all in the same line he gets the point across of how addicting the substance is to him.
"i wish i could eat your cancer when you turn black". He mentions it being cancer which is something that kills people but he says that he loves it and would eat the cancer. Its something that he "loves to hate" or atleast he acknowledges how bad it is for him but he still loves the high he gets when using.