This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Days behold lives unfold
Can't move on so much untold
Shades of gold we've been sold
Been deceived while we believe
If today is all we see
Then tomorrow seems to me
Is just an illusion we believe
Strive to see hope to be
To be some small part of eternity
If today is all we see
Then tomorrow seems to me is
Just an illusion we believe
Can't move on so much untold
Shades of gold we've been sold
Been deceived while we believe
If today is all we see
Then tomorrow seems to me
Is just an illusion we believe
Strive to see hope to be
To be some small part of eternity
If today is all we see
Then tomorrow seems to me is
Just an illusion we believe
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
i love this song bc it is so simple...first it starts off sounding a bit mellow and the lyrics of the first stanza are a bit of a downer, but it slowly builds up into a crescendo of happy instrumentalness which makes you look forward to the future, bc "if today is all we see, then tomorrow seems to me is just an illusion we believe"..i think it's about how people go about their daily lives, not really knowing why or how they got there and what their purpose is, but we all "strive to see, hope to be some small part of eternity."
we recently analyzed the hell out of sylvia plath's morning song in lit.. i think it's interesting they share the same title. it seems kind of like it could be a take on the poem. or at least parts of it. the poem seems to be about motherhood and not being around forever... plath kind of knew she was going to kill herself and not always be there for her kids, so "tomorrow seems...just an illusion we believe" for her............
shrug i just like the song :)
We've been sold (collectively), deceived and believe in a pot of gold somewhere over the rainbow.
BS is what I believe the author is saying we believe in. We've been sold BS that we is an illusion. I think it's self-explanatory: This life is it and the only life we will ever know. The rest is an illusion that we been sold and believe in
He has yet to accept to this which is the reason he can't move on. He has accepted his plight so one can only hope to be some small part (or is it moth) of eternity.
The instrumental epilogue is a transition into accepting this reality and it does a pretty convincing celebration to the life that we do have and so then it off to whatever this life holds for us. Getting the most out of being here for as long as that may be.
Accepting this version of what awaits us is hard for most of us to accept but the illusion of another tomorrow can inhibited us from getting the most out of this life we are currently experiencing
I love the Sylvia Plath version, but this one doesn't do much for me. I don't think they're related other than title.
if today is all we see...then tomorrow seems to me...is just an illusion we believe.
that is some powerful stuff i must say. I think he's trying to say that we have faith in tomorrow without actually even experiencing it. It could also possibly mean that we take "tomorrow" for granted...just assume that it will come cause we believe in it. I don't know, i'm probably over analyzing...this song is amazing.
I think this song is about being present in the moment. If today is all we see and we are fully present in today then tomorrow doesn't even exist. If we are consistently present then there is no furture nor past.