The lyrics of this song seem to be the words of one
schizophrenia describing one of his "voices in his head", which
urges him to commit suicide. In fact, Dickinson had prefaced it
piece live, saying: “This is a song […] about a gentleman who goes
up top and comes back down… has another go… ”(« This is a song […]
for a gentleman who goes up and down again… pays another
effort… »), meaning that the protagonist of the lyrics commits suicide and
comes to life again.
A characteristic symptom of schizophrenia is headaches
illusions, which, many times, take the form of speeches. This
observed in other cases (psychotic depression, mania, lack
sleep, taking certain substances), however, in schizophrenia the person on the one hand
believes that "voices" are real and on the other hand the voices are about
practically anything, criticize his actions, persecute him or give him
commands. The most dangerous expressions of these illusions concern
cases in which the patient hears voices, which give him
orders or assigns him missions, which can push him into violence
behavior (see “Killers”).
According to the approach of those who interpret his lyrics
piece as part of a story that unfolds in five pieces, that
is the fourth part of the story. The appeals to Lamia
of the previous part were left unsatisfied.