A Closer Look at RM’s ‘Moonchild’ ; Lyric Analysis

“Moonchild” is the 3rd track from RM’s mixtape mono. In a behind the scenes talk about the making of the album, RM revealed that he included a spoiler for the upcoming song by including the word “moonchild” in his and Taehyung’s song “4 o’clock.”

Backed by a relaxed instrumental and a heavy beat, the song’s lyrics urge those who are struggling to find comfort in the darkness. The lyrics encourage those who are enduring personal hardships to hold on to hope and find light, like light from the moon, within themselves.

Astrologically, a moonchild is a person born under the zodiac sign of Cancer. But here, moonchild is not an astrological moonchild, but it can refer to a person born in tough situations, and finally conquered them.

“We’re born in the moonlight”

Moonlight is often used to symbolise a symbol of one’s innermost self. It is under the moonlight that people discover who they truly are and their hidden desires. People also often become vulnerable and expose their flaws under the moonlight.

“Ain’t no fantasy”

I think RM says that this isn’t a fantasy because we have to accept ourselves and who we truly are instead of creating a perfect fantasy of who we envision ourselves to be. This concept is also referenced in this song “uhgood” where he talks about the bridge between his ‘real’ self and his ‘ideal’ self:-

“My ideal and what is reality

They’re so far, far away

But I still want to cross that two bridges

To reach myself

To the real me”

“Can’t breathe in the sunlight

Gotta hide your heart”

“Can’t breathe in the sunlight” may refer to the fact that all the ‘moonchildren’ are used to the moonlight and it is their comfort zone hence, when the sun comes up and there is sunlight all around, moonchildren feel uncomfortable.

“We’re born to be sad, sad, sad, sad

Suffer to be glad, glad, glad, glad”

When ‘moonchildren’ were born, growing up they may have felt out of place and struggled to understand themself better. And, when they finally find themselves happy, circumstances change and they have to struggle and suffer once again to find happiness. This is the circle of life. No one is indefinitely happy or indefinitely sad and no situation is permanent. Problems come and go away, situations change and people go from sad to happy to sad and so, life goes on.

“C’mon y’all, moonchild, moonchild

That’s how it’s supposed to be

Yeah all this pain and all this sorrow

That’s our destiny, see?”

In the first verse, RM talks about our destiny as moon children. He says that all the pain and the sorrow is our destiny, if we refer to his previous lyrics of “We’re born to be sad, sad, sad, sad

Suffer to be glad, glad, glad, glad”

We understand that this is our destiny because only after suffering, we can finally find our happiness and feel the real joy that accompanies it.

“You and my life was like this

We gotta dance in the rain

Dance in the pain

Even though we crash down

We gon dance in the plane”

RM tells us that his life is like this too and even though it may seem like we are alone in our suffering, there are many others like us.

The next line: “… dance in the rain” reminds me of a quote from British writer Vivian Greene- “Life isn’t about sheltering from the storm…It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” But what does it mean to ‘dance in the rain’? ‘Dance in the Rain’ is a metaphor and it means that person has learned not to allow circumstances to deter them from reaching their full potential. They don’t wait for bad things in their life to go away. Instead, they have a positive attitude and take challenges head-on and enjoy the journey.

“We need the scenery the night more than anybody

Only I could console myself, not nobody else”

This line may be in direct reference to one of the first lyrics in the song: “can’t breathe in the sunlight” which means that we have gotten very used to and comfortable with the moonlight and we need it. But, night could also represent peace and calm, a phase of inactivity and relaxation so RM might just need the scenery of the night for peace.

“It’s okay to shed the tears

But don’t you tear yourself”

Like the genius RM is, he has played with the word ‘tear’ here. In this phrase, ‘tear’ has two meanings respectively- Tear (verb) means to separate into pieces and Tear (noun) means the water we shed from our eyes. Here, he says that it is okay to let tears out and cry out our problems because, if we don’t do that and bottle up our feelings, it may tear us from within. He tells us that during all the problems and challenges that life may throw at us, we might feel extremely pressured but we shouldn’t keep the pain inside and let it tear us, instead we should let it out in the form of tears and be relieved.

“Moonchild you shine

When moonrise, it’s your time

C’mon on y’all

Moonchild don’t cry

When moonrise, it’s your time”

During the chorus, RM consoles us and says that we may feel like we do not fit with the rest of the world when we haven’t found ourselves and our real happiness but after the sun goes down, the night will surely come and night is the time when moon children shine. Here, he means to say that no matter how many problems or disturbing situations life might throw you in, it will pass and your time will come when you will be happy. So, don’t feel extremely sad during these situations and look forward to when the moon will rise and night will come.

“I left, but can never get to leave once

You say you wanna die, but live it much harder

You say you wanna let go but put on another weight

Thinking of not thinking at all is still a thinking, you know”

People often say they want to die but such disturbing thoughts make their life even harder. They think about letting things go and ultimately put on another weight on it by forcing us to think about it. Pretending to not think about it and ignoring it, ends up with us avoiding it and thinking about ignoring it is still thinking about it. We suffer because of all the bottled up feelings and smile in endless pain. This pain cannot go if we don’t let it out in tears or it will tear us from within.

“Actually this is our destiny, you know

Smiling in endless pain, you know”

But, it’s okay because this is our destiny. But, we have to endure this pain until our time comes when the moon rises. We have to dance in straight pain and endure it. You can cry it out when the pain starts to tear you within but otherwise find comfort in your shell and wait for the moon to rise.

“There is no ‘freedom’ when you say ‘freedom’ out loud, you know

Do you know?”

This is an interesting line. If a person has actual freedom, they do have to worry about it, or think about it and therefore don’t say it. If they haven’t experienced “captivity”, they do not know the concept of freedom. Therefore, if one is thinking about freedom, they are not actually free. If someone hasn’t experienced sadness, they would not know what “happiness” is because it is the lack of sadness just like freedom is the lack of captivity. So, if people don’t suffer first and go through difficulties, they will not feel true happiness and joy.

“In the moon hours, look at the night sky through the eyes of your soul

Gonna show it to you, your window, your time”

“Moon hours” is a reference to when the moon comes up and moonlight surrounds us. RM wants us to look at the night sky through the eyes of our soul. The night here represents all the situations we have conquered, so maybe RM wants us to see how far we have come and how much we have endured therefore we should keep moving forward to find happiness and joy.

A window is a symbol for opportunities, luck/circumstances, and beginnings so maybe, RM is trying to remind us that fate also plays a little part in our journey to happiness.

“You know, there’s a lot of thorns on that streetlight too

Look closely at that blinking light for once”

Here, the thorns can be used to symbolise a person’s pain, sadness, struggles, and flaws. RM might have thought that the anti-bird spikes on street lamps could be seen as the “thorns” of the street lamps too. RM is trying to tell us that no one is completely happy because everyone has their own “thorns” and if we look closely we might be able to see them.

“Thorns” aren’t exactly negative here. RM urges us to see that we aren’t the only one with thorns and however much perfect other’s life may see, up close they have their thorns too. This idea consoles us and also gives us a reality check that even we have thorns just like everyone else.

“Isn’t a night view such a cruel thing

A magnificent sight of somebodies’ thorns

Someone will be consoled by looking at your thorns for sure”

RM calls the night cruel maybe because the night scenery tricks us. Charlie Chaplin once said, “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”.Here, the night scenery consists of building with lights on, bridges with fancy lightings, running cars — they all make up a very beautiful scenery when we look at them from a distance. But, if we zoom to each corner, we see people working late into the night in their office, drivers taking passengers home when they can’t go home, people who can’t fall asleep, and so on. These thorns are what make up the beautiful night scenery. Just like we can be consoled by seeing others ‘thorns and know that we are alone in our suffering, others can also look at our thorns and know the same.

“We are each other’s nightscape, each other’s moon”

At the end of the song, RM reminds us that we are not alone because others like us would understand us and who we would understand. And, all of us would be consoled by each other’s thorns.