Not Mine — Summary

HiyaSad

Maybe it was the way he talked, Or maybe it was his eyes, Maybe it was the way he walked, Like a true dream full of lies.

Maybe I was too weak and timid, For those words I couldn't say to him, Because his eyes made me lose control, And made the light in my brain go dim.

Maybe he knew I fell for him, Maybe he did not, Maybe I was nothing for him, Maybe I was all that he got.

I don't know the reasons , I know just the words, That have changed my past and present, And have locked me up in my own world.

Because he didn't belong to me, I'd made a worthless effort, She was the one who relived, Him from his pain and pressure.

I try to be happy for him, And fake a smile so he won't see, And tell my heart over and over again, That he doesn't and never will belong to me.

And as he walks past me tonight, I turn around and look at the moon, And tell my heart that it'll be alright, And that this never ending pain will end soon.

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"Not Mine" is about unrequited love, told by a speaker who has fallen for someone who will never return her feelings. She opens with a list of maybes: maybe it was his voice, his eyes, his walk. That string of guesses shows how confused she is, unable to say exactly why she fell. She was too shy to speak, and the poem hints that another girl has since eased his pain, leaving the speaker with nothing but her own effort, which now feels wasted.

The feeling that runs through it is quiet heartbreak. She smiles falsely so he won't notice, and keeps repeating to her heart that he isn't hers, as if she has to teach herself the fact again each day. The mood is sad but gentle, with no anger in it. In the last stanza she turns to the moon as he walks past, and comforts herself with the hope that the pain will end soon. That hope sounds more like a wish than a certainty.

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