In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Fall asleep
Night resonance recedes
(I regret that I have not really
Understood any thing, not a single
Object and that no man ever can,
The fascinating waltz of nature here
In sight of the sea taking advantage
Of me to dart upon me and sting me,
Because I've dared to open my mouth
To sing at all)
I nearly die of all the beauty
Sleep a fall
Fragments tearing asunder,
Elements of my mind
Echoes lost in purple smoke
Like visions in eclipse
Elements tearing asunder,
Fragments of my mind
Visions lost in purple smoke
Like echoes in eclipse
Sleep took me by the brow and laid me
Back. then, down in a flood of remembrance
I remembered her sea-reflecting eyes,
The eyes-reflecting sea and all the
Resounding things in between.
I tried to listen in awe but...
For a moment, like a wavering spark,
BLOOD
Her face laid there before my breast,
Pale love lost in the winds of September
Guarded by glittering tears and lips apart
With dumb cries...
TEARS
A supreme moment, like an indolent sigh,
A memorized experience of tomorrow?
Or just a dark figment of my imagination?
I'm unsure.
...Sane, but in a way dimorphously risking
Absurdity I looked into the mirrors, again
And again, caught as in a nightmare,
Or did they look on me?
I don't know but that's rather ominous,
Something happened...
In her looking-glass my lips part as though
I wanted to speak
A strange labyrinth, ways on all sides,
But how shall I turn?
Seasons changed with my confidence...
...A fine wind blew the new direction of time
Time, that is watching from the shadows
SHADOWS
I wonder who I am.
I don't know and swoon away with consternation
Clatter in my ears and a face in my mind
That puts a blame on me
I don't understand, loosing myself again
Nevertheless I can't let this fall into oblivion...
A deep breath and that vast hunger for
Everything beyond us
Help me to follow you, a phantom still
I walk on, as if out of my own young life,
As if escaping into another dream,
Another life, another me
I seem to drift away like the waters
And I don't know what I am going to be)
Do what we will
Our hasty minutes fly
And while we sleep
What do we else but die
All these joys
How short their day
They creep on towards us
But fly away
I wake to what is real and not a dream
I dream of what is real and
Wake to what's no dream
I wake to what is dream and
What's not real
I dream of what is real and
Wake to what is dream
Night resonance recedes
(I regret that I have not really
Understood any thing, not a single
Object and that no man ever can,
The fascinating waltz of nature here
In sight of the sea taking advantage
Of me to dart upon me and sting me,
Because I've dared to open my mouth
To sing at all)
I nearly die of all the beauty
Sleep a fall
Fragments tearing asunder,
Elements of my mind
Echoes lost in purple smoke
Like visions in eclipse
Elements tearing asunder,
Fragments of my mind
Visions lost in purple smoke
Like echoes in eclipse
Sleep took me by the brow and laid me
Back. then, down in a flood of remembrance
I remembered her sea-reflecting eyes,
The eyes-reflecting sea and all the
Resounding things in between.
I tried to listen in awe but...
For a moment, like a wavering spark,
BLOOD
Her face laid there before my breast,
Pale love lost in the winds of September
Guarded by glittering tears and lips apart
With dumb cries...
TEARS
A supreme moment, like an indolent sigh,
A memorized experience of tomorrow?
Or just a dark figment of my imagination?
I'm unsure.
...Sane, but in a way dimorphously risking
Absurdity I looked into the mirrors, again
And again, caught as in a nightmare,
Or did they look on me?
I don't know but that's rather ominous,
Something happened...
In her looking-glass my lips part as though
I wanted to speak
A strange labyrinth, ways on all sides,
But how shall I turn?
Seasons changed with my confidence...
...A fine wind blew the new direction of time
Time, that is watching from the shadows
SHADOWS
I wonder who I am.
I don't know and swoon away with consternation
Clatter in my ears and a face in my mind
That puts a blame on me
I don't understand, loosing myself again
Nevertheless I can't let this fall into oblivion...
A deep breath and that vast hunger for
Everything beyond us
Help me to follow you, a phantom still
I walk on, as if out of my own young life,
As if escaping into another dream,
Another life, another me
I seem to drift away like the waters
And I don't know what I am going to be)
Do what we will
Our hasty minutes fly
And while we sleep
What do we else but die
All these joys
How short their day
They creep on towards us
But fly away
I wake to what is real and not a dream
I dream of what is real and
Wake to what's no dream
I wake to what is dream and
What's not real
I dream of what is real and
Wake to what is dream
Lyrics submitted by Amorosa Dulce
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
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.