Words Per Mile

This song stands in opposition to the circle depicted in Dante’s seventh canto—avarice, or greed. The sinners punished in this circle are the wasters and hoarders—AKA those who take more than they need, either to use carelessly or hold needlessly. Their specific punishment involves pushing heavy weights in half circles, and I wonder if there’s any connection to Hozier’s phrase “steering my heart like a wheel in your hands.” However, I think that might just connected to talking about cars in the rest of the verse…but is the idea of driving a car related to the idea of “driving” the weights around? Tenuous, but maybe.

The title of this song is funny, because the phrase “Damage Gets Done” makes you think you’re going to hear how the damage does, in fact, get done. However, Hozier makes a point of saying in the song that the behavior he’s describing “is not how the damage gets done.” The people in the song are young, poor, and don’t want; they’re not avaricious. He’s saying here that being “reckless and young” isn’t hurting anyone. There is damage that gets done, but it’s by those who waste and hoard. Following on the heels of Eat Your Young, I think we can guess who he thinks these people are.

Just as Virgil tells Dante they shouldn’t loiter in the fourth circle, so I won’t loiter here. To me, this one is pretty straightforward! Let me know in the comments if there’s anything else you’ve picked up on that I may have missed.