“Sienna” by The Marías is one of the most emotionally delicate songs on Submarine, a track that feels dreamlike, nostalgic, and devastating all at once. From the first moments, the song wraps you in a haze of memory and longing, blurring the line between what was real, what was imagined, and what was hoped for. The Marías have always had a gift for creating songs that feel like slow-moving films, and “Sienna” embodies that feeling completely.
This track isn’t just a story about love — it’s about connection so deep that it shapes your fantasies for the future, and heartbreak so heavy that it changes the way you remember the past. The emotional center of the song revolves around a name: Sienna. A name that represents the child the couple imagined, the baby who could have carried both of their features, temper, softness, and spirit. “Sienna” becomes the symbol of everything they could have shared but never got to have.
Longing for a Love That Feels Like Home
The opening of “Sienna” immediately creates the emotional tone. There’s a gentle plea, a desire to be held, a desire not to be pushed away. It feels like two people who have been through cycles together — closeness, distance, return, retreat. The narrator speaks with familiarity, as if they have lived many lives inside this relationship. The connection is deep enough that she sees herself living under their eyelids — a poetic way of saying she exists in their memories, their thoughts, their inner world, even when everything else is falling apart.
This is love that feels like a home you keep returning to even after the roof collapses. It’s that bond that refuses to break, even when both people know it probably should. The tone is soft, aching, and full of unspoken history.
The Warm Nostalgia of the Past
The first pre-chorus paints a vivid emotional landscape. The narrator recalls tender moments, personal rituals, and quiet intimacy — watching the sunset on a rooftop together, wearing each other’s clothes, singing a soft love song. All these memories feel like snapshots from a relationship that had its own private universe. These moments represent a version of them that felt effortless, innocent, and deeply connected.
There is an emotional sweetness in the way these memories are revisited, but they also carry a sting. The narrator remembers them not because she is still living them, but because they have slipped into the past. The warmth of these memories stands in contrast to the coldness of the present.
The reference to Norah Jones adds an extra layer of tenderness — a soundtrack of intimacy, a gentle confession of love, a moment that now lives only in memory.
The Meaning Behind the Name “Sienna”
The chorus introduces the name Sienna, and it becomes the emotional anchor of the song. Sienna represents the child they never had — the imagined daughter shaped by the personalities of both lovers. It is a heartbreaking glimpse into what their future could have looked like if the relationship had survived.
Sienna is more than a hypothetical child.
She is the hope that was born in the heart of the relationship.
She is the softness they shared.
She is the future they once built together, living only in their imaginations.
The heartbreak lies in the fact that saying the name brings both joy and grief. The narrator sees the child that could have existed — the features, the personality, the innocence — and she sees the loss of that dream.
The Relief and Vulnerability of Being Seen
The second verse reveals something crucial about the dynamic between the two lovers: the narrator felt truly seen only in this connection. She “came clean,” meaning she opened up emotionally, confessed something, or revealed truths she had held inside. And through that act of honesty, she felt understood in a way she hadn’t before.
The bittersweet part is that this intimacy coexists with the heartbreak. She may have felt the most seen in this relationship, but even that couldn’t save them.
The emotional truth becomes clearer — this love was imperfect, possibly turbulent, yet deeply transformative.
Trying to Recreate the Past
The second pre-chorus is filled with repetition of old habits, old memories, and old emotional pathways. She returns to the doorway, waits outside like she used to, revisits places and movements that once meant something between them. She describes herself pulling at her hair, hearing the familiar creak of the stairs — these subtle sensory details evoke the ache of returning to a love that isn’t alive anymore.
It’s a longing for repetition, a desire to relive something that can’t be relived. Everything she remembers becomes a doorway to a version of them that existed before heartbreak, before separation, before disillusionment.
Imagining the Child They Could Have Raised Together
The bridge paints the most emotionally piercing image of all: she imagines Sienna — not as an abstract child, but as a living, breathing little girl with a personality. A child who would share his temper, his restlessness, his silliness. She imagines Sienna jumping into pools, singing to pets, moving through life with the same softness and sensitivity that her partner showed her.
This moment is heartbreaking because it reveals how fully she allowed herself to dream of a life with this person. She didn’t just imagine a future — she imagined the child they would raise, the traits she would inherit, the joy she would bring. The imagery turns “Sienna” into a ghost of a life unlived, a possibility that was beautiful but ultimately impossible.
Memory as the Last Connection
The outro brings everything together in a gentle, reflective haze. She smiles when she thinks about their past — not because the relationship is still alive, but because the memories are. She remembers the beach in winter, the wild waves, the crystal-clear water, the flashes of his presence that still haunt her. She sees Sienna’s imagined face in the forest, a representation of the lingering dream, but it disappears because it cannot exist anymore.
This ending is one of the most poetic parts of the entire song. Memories become both comfort and heartbreak. The imagined child becomes both love and loss. The entire relationship becomes a collection of moments she carries within herself, even after everything has ended.
Final Thoughts on the Meaning of “Sienna”
“Sienna” by The Marías is a deeply emotional reflection on love, memory, vulnerability, and the dreams we build inside relationships that don’t survive. The song is gentle, cinematic, and devastating, portraying how a single connection can shape the future we imagine — even if that future never becomes real.
Sienna represents the love they shared, the dreams they built, and the childlike innocence of believing something could last forever. It’s a tribute to everything that might have been, everything that was lost, and everything that still lingers in the heart.