43) In a Sweater Poorly Knit

Hello and welcome to Learning English with Lyrics! I am your host Jake, and today...well, this week is my birthday week! No, we aren't going to talk about the song "Happy Birthday to You". But I figured, since it is my birthday week, I'd choose a song that I particularly love! Coincidentally, one of my favorite bands of all time, an indie rock band called "mewithoutYou"  is playing their very last show this week. So, in honor of them, I'd like to talk about one of my absolute favorite songs of theirs, a song called "In a Sweater Poorly Knit". mewithoutYou's music is certainly not everyone's cup of tea, that is to say, it may not be your preferred type of music. The singing is often closer to spoken word poetry than actual singing, and the music doesn't always follow standard song structures you might be used to. This song is one of their more accessible, that is to say, something a little bit more "normal". I hope you enjoy it!

Go ahead and give it a listen. What did you think?

The line I'd like to talk about is one that is repeated several times throughout the song.

"The trap I set for you, seems to have caught my leg instead."

The first interesting word here, "trap", may be familiar to you. A trap is something that is used to catch something else. The most common example would be a mouse trap, a device that attracts mice with the promise of some food, and then closes tightly on them, either killing them or capturing them. We're not sure what kind of trap the singer wants us to be thinking of here, except he mentions his leg getting stuck in it. Perhaps some kind of net, or maybe even something like a bear trap, which is often a sharp, dangerous vice, that holds your leg in place tightly with its teeth.

Most importantly, there is a trap! And it is the singer who has placed the trap. He uses the word "set" here, which is a word that we commonly use with traps. To "set" a trap, starts with placing the trap somewhere. For example, in the forest where the bears are, or in your kitchen where a mouse might be. Once it has been placed, you can "set" the trap. This means to prepare the trap for catching someone or something. The mechanism on a mouse trap is harmless until it is set, that is to say, it is pulled back and locked into place, ready for the mouse to come. Once the mouse touches the trap, it "triggers" it, snapping it over the mouse and killing or trapping it.

To "set a trap" FOR someone or something, means that you have a specific target in mind. You set a mouse trap for...mice! In our song, the singer has set a trap for someone...he's not very clear who it is. After listening to the song and reading the lyrics, who do you think it is?

Finally, the song says that the trap "seems to have caught my leg instead". "Seems to have" is an interesting phrase. If something "seems" to have happened, that means that you think it happened. That is to say, the evidence that you have points to it happening. Often, this phrase is used to express surprise at something you didn't notice before. "I seem to have forgotten my wallet!" would indicate that you have noticed that you have forgotten your wallet. "I seem to have eaten a dozen donuts by myself!" would indicate that I am surprised at how many donuts I ate. Perhaps I didn't notice I was eating so many!

In our song, the singer has set a trap for someone. He is now surprised to find out, that instead of the other person, HE is the one who is trapped. He caught himself in his own trap!

What could he mean by that?

He's using poetic language to describe something. Can you figure out what it is? Let me know your thoughts! As always, you can reach us at [email protected] or on instagram at lelpodcast.

Well, it seems like that's all we have for this week. I look forward to talking to you soon!