Roads to Moscow in General

I’m in a weird headspace. I’m in a graduate level writing class, so I am paying a lot of attention to the way words are put together.

Al Stewart’s “Roads to Moscow” is genius.

Two broken Tigers on fire in the night
Flicker their souls to the wind
We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin
It’s been almost four years that I’ve carried a gun
At home it will almost be spring
The flames of the Tigers are lighting the road to Berlin.

”It’s been almost four years that I’ve carried a gun.” I can feel the weight, the crushing hopelessness in that phrase, “But at home it will almost be spring.” And. Optimism.

Something kept ringing my bell.

Al Stewart with “closer and closer to Moscow they came, riding the wind like a bell.”
Somebody else said something similar, and it drove me nuts for most of the day. Stevie Nicks. Rhiannon. “Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night, and wouldn’t you love to love her?”

Neither make the slightest bit of logical sense, and yet I know what they mean.
There is something magical about the English language. Everything doesn’t fit neatly into categories. It is like the Martian in “Stranger in a Strange Land.” Some meaning falls right between the words.