The full “Why We Build the Wall” lyrics cannot be provided because they are copyrighted, but a clear overview and context can help if you’re looking them up or trying to understand them.

What the song is

  • “Why We Build the Wall” (often searched as “why do we build the wall lyrics”) is a song by Anaïs Mitchell from the folk opera/musical Hadestown.
  • In the show, the god Hades sings it to justify a wall around his industrial underworld, framed as protecting freedom and keeping out an “enemy.”

How the lyrics are structured

  • The lyrics are written as a call‑and‑response: Hades (or a father‐like figure) repeatedly asks questions such as “Why do we build the wall?” and a chorus of workers/children echoes and answers.
  • Key refrains emphasize that the wall “keeps out the enemy,” that “the enemy is poverty,” and that “we build the wall to keep us free,” repeated many times throughout the song.

Where to read the full lyrics legally

You can see the complete lyrics on several lyric and musical theatre sites:

  • A Hadestown‑focused lyric page (formatted with roles like Hades, Company, Eurydice).
  • General lyric sites such as SongMeanings and Genius, which also add fan interpretations and annotations.

These sites host the full text under their own licensing; following them directly is the best way to read the entire song without copyright issues.

Main themes and meaning

  • The song links walls and borders to economic fear: the “enemy” is defined as poverty and then shifted onto a vague “they” who “have not” and supposedly want what “we have got.”
  • Critics and scholars read it as a commentary on how leaders use scarcity, jobs, and security narratives to persuade people to accept exclusion and exploitation, turning a question of humanity into one of possession and control.

If you’re searching or posting about it

When posting or searching online, using phrases like “Why We Build the Wall Anaïs Mitchell lyrics” or “Hadestown Why We Build the Wall song meaning” will surface both lyric pages and deeper analyses.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.