The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Once I had a dream
And this is it
Once there was a child's dream
One night the clock struck twelve
The window open wide
Once there was a child's heart
The age I learned to fly
And took a step outside
Once I knew all the tales
It's time to turn back time
Follow the pale moonlight
Once I wished for this night
Faith brought me here
It's time to cut the rope and fly
Fly to a dream
Far across the sea
All the burdens gone
Open the chest once more
Dark chest of wonders
Seen through the eyes
Of the one with pure heart
Once so long ago
The one in the Big Blue is what the world stole from me
This night will bring him back to me
Fly to a dream
And this is it
Once there was a child's dream
One night the clock struck twelve
The window open wide
Once there was a child's heart
The age I learned to fly
And took a step outside
Once I knew all the tales
It's time to turn back time
Follow the pale moonlight
Once I wished for this night
Faith brought me here
It's time to cut the rope and fly
Fly to a dream
Far across the sea
All the burdens gone
Open the chest once more
Dark chest of wonders
Seen through the eyes
Of the one with pure heart
Once so long ago
The one in the Big Blue is what the world stole from me
This night will bring him back to me
Fly to a dream
Lyrics submitted by unlearnthetruth
Dark Chest of Wonders Lyrics as written by Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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To me I see it not as Pandora's box, but rather a person's own mental will and mind; as a child they had everything in their heads free and loving, but the limited sight of adults locks that mind and brings out only what they think will help the child; anything else they find they tell the child to "Forget about it". For example: The child dreams perhaps (or truly is living) in his/her own world when the clock strikes midnight; he flies to his own world, his dreamland of limitless possiblities. As the child grows, so does his confliction with this limitless mind. I'll explain further by describing the song in two voices.
The beginning is stated as "Once I had a dream, and this is it." The child is already an adult, reminiscing about his/her dream, the life they wanted.
Now we go to the first two chorus lines (the ones sung before Tarja's couplets in the song) "Once there was a child's dream" "Once there was a child's heart" The child here in question basically already reached adulthood and is being faced with one image of his/her childhood already past, and therefore has some difficulty comming to terms with accepting it again. Now Tarja sings: "One night the clock struck twelve, the window opened wide." "The age I learned to fly and took a step outside." The child remembers hijs/her first wonderful dream, where their mind had roamed free and given them their first dreams and hopes in the world. And again, the chorus with "Once I knew all the tales." "Once I wished for this Night." The child looks back on their dreams past, and now how the dream is comming back to them; their perfect and limitless world. Tarja With "It's time to turn back time follow the pale moonlight." "Faith brought me here it's time to cut the rope and fly..." The child has their perfect dream again, their limitless and powerful world, and they decided it's time they went back to that dream to remind themselves of what they once had and what they can have once more. Like this, the child literally finds their "Dark Chest of Wonders", which was the chest their parents had locked away in the child's mind so as to prepare them for the real world, and now the child as an adult finds this chest and wants to reopen it so the can remember what it was like to be a child, to be innocent, to have life and a perfect beautiful mind. That's what the song means to me anyway; finding your inner innocence and childlike mind again, and living within it. I find this even more emulated in the line here; "The One in the big blue is what the world has stolen from me This night will bring him back to me" The child's mind was locked away by the chains of reality and family, and now the child wants to bring back their mind on this night, the night where they had their first true dream.