My Love Mine All Mine - Mitski

The current assumption of this song is that this song is about a past love, talking in a point of view as if we, the singer, have moved on and yet our love for them, our love towards them, is long lasting, permanent and eternal. Many listeners who listen to the song believe that this song is about a life they couldn’t have, a life of missed opportunities. A life of dreams, one could say as well. A life that holds no other relevance other than to sit at the back of your mind, thinking of the wonders beyond reality. 

The truth is, this song is about the manifestation of her(mitski’s) love for her partner in the hopes that they will feel her love even after her death. I guess you could also interpret this as Mitski asking us what is beyond death. The living can love the dead, but the dead can not love the living– that fact is a given. It is logic that no human can deny. Her song questions about the eternity of death and of love– if they are of equivalent value or different in relevancy. 

What is love? What is death? If death is eternal and love is finite and temporary, does one simply shift their focus of love from it being a mortal's body, to the memory of said mortal?

The style of questioning repeats– a person can love a memory, but can a memory love you back? The much simpler way of explaining this is to think about the medium of love. Of course there are the typical five forms of love, but to specify, can love exist beyond these forms? 

At its core, the love we recall from a memory, is only a mere memory of being loved. The memory does not love you and the memory does not continuously love you. In contrast, a memory is just a finite moment we remember, to conserve the short amount of love we are able to receive, and to repeat that moment endlessly, to simulate that moment of being loved over and over again.

Then what does it mean, to love a person who has died? What differences does it make when a person loves the other beyond death? Is it a different kind of love? A subgenre of love, reserved for those who are unreachable. Is that kind of love specifically the type of love towards a memory? To repeat, does love after death exist beyond a memory?

In addition, if death and love are of equal lifetimes, then can love outlive a man? What is love? Can a ghost love? Can a ghost even exist if one does not hold a grudge against the world? The phrase “love outlive a man” can be interpreted as love being a title or a status of some kind, where love is the things you do and feel towards a party and it being able to outlive a man’s lifespan. The effects of one’s love extending beyond the mortal's body and extending it to the realm of souls. 

I’ll end this essay here, as I have no conclusion nor answers to my myriads of questions. Just like how a song is just a song in the end, a thought is merely just a thought as well. Some thoughts do not continue, with this being one of them. One must remember what love is like to understand love. Without memory, there is no continuity of love. Without love, there will be no long lasting memories. Without love, a memory is just a memory, and death, is just a death.