Mary Chapin Carpenter - 10,000 Miles Lyrics Meaning

This song is about LOVE, LOSS and separation from that one true love: soulmate.

It is also about a journey needfully taken by one who promises to come back, yet knowing full well the distance is so great and too far that the separation will most likely forever exist between them (a false promise). Quite possibly ending in a tragic event as acknowledged, "If I don't return", "rocks melt", "seas burn". Catastrophe!

The Dove sitting in the ivy tree represents the person that is left behind, waiting, longing for their soulmate to return; weeping at the realization they will forever be separated from each other. Their friendship; the deepest possible, only serves to make the profound loss even that much greater and deeper!