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"
So so long ago and so far away
When time was just a line that you fed me when you wanted to stay
We'd talk as soft as chalk till morning came, pale as a pearl
No time, no, no time, now I have got all the time in the world
Say, honey, did you belong to me?
Tell me honey, was your heart at rest
When, darlin', all the mourning doves were howling us
The song of love's, oh godawful lawlessness?
Lawlessness
Say, honey, did you belong to me
Tell me honey, did I pass your test?
I lay as still as death until the dawn
Whereupon I wrested from y'r godawful lawlessness
Lawlessness
I roam around the tidy grounds
Of my dappled sanatorium
Coatless I sit amongst the motes adrift
And I dote upon my pinesap gum
And the light through the pines in brassy tines
Lays over me, dim as rum
And thick as molasses, and so time passes
And so, my heart, tomorrow comes
I feel you leaning out back with the crickets
Loyal heart marking the soon-ness, darkness tonight
Still, the mourning doves will summon us their song
Of love's neverdoneing lawlessness
Lawlessness
While over and over, rear up, stand down, lay round
Trying to sound out or guess the reasons
I sleep like a soldier, without rest
But there is no treason where there is only lawlessness
Lawlessness
In the last week of the last year I was aware
I took a blind shot across the creek at the black bear
When he roused me in the night and left me cowering with my light calling out
Who is there?
Who's there?
Who is there?
I watched you sleep repeating my prayer
You give love a little shove and it becomes terror
And now I am calling in a sadness beyond anger and beyond fear
Who is there?
Who's there?
Who is there?
I glare and nod like the character God
Bearing down upon the houses and lawns
I knew a little bit, but darling, you were it,
And darling, now it is long gone
Sweetheart in your clean bright start
Back there behind a hill and a dell
In a state line or two I'll be thinking of you
Yes, I'll be thinking and be wishing you well
We land, I stand, but I wait for the sound of the bell
I have to catch a cab and my bags are at the carousel
And then, Lord, just then, time alone will only tell
You mourning dove
When time was just a line that you fed me when you wanted to stay
We'd talk as soft as chalk till morning came, pale as a pearl
No time, no, no time, now I have got all the time in the world
Say, honey, did you belong to me?
Tell me honey, was your heart at rest
When, darlin', all the mourning doves were howling us
The song of love's, oh godawful lawlessness?
Lawlessness
Say, honey, did you belong to me
Tell me honey, did I pass your test?
I lay as still as death until the dawn
Whereupon I wrested from y'r godawful lawlessness
Lawlessness
I roam around the tidy grounds
Of my dappled sanatorium
Coatless I sit amongst the motes adrift
And I dote upon my pinesap gum
And the light through the pines in brassy tines
Lays over me, dim as rum
And thick as molasses, and so time passes
And so, my heart, tomorrow comes
I feel you leaning out back with the crickets
Loyal heart marking the soon-ness, darkness tonight
Still, the mourning doves will summon us their song
Of love's neverdoneing lawlessness
Lawlessness
While over and over, rear up, stand down, lay round
Trying to sound out or guess the reasons
I sleep like a soldier, without rest
But there is no treason where there is only lawlessness
Lawlessness
In the last week of the last year I was aware
I took a blind shot across the creek at the black bear
When he roused me in the night and left me cowering with my light calling out
Who is there?
Who's there?
Who is there?
I watched you sleep repeating my prayer
You give love a little shove and it becomes terror
And now I am calling in a sadness beyond anger and beyond fear
Who is there?
Who's there?
Who is there?
I glare and nod like the character God
Bearing down upon the houses and lawns
I knew a little bit, but darling, you were it,
And darling, now it is long gone
Sweetheart in your clean bright start
Back there behind a hill and a dell
In a state line or two I'll be thinking of you
Yes, I'll be thinking and be wishing you well
We land, I stand, but I wait for the sound of the bell
I have to catch a cab and my bags are at the carousel
And then, Lord, just then, time alone will only tell
You mourning dove
Lyrics submitted by animalcollector
Soft as Chalk Lyrics as written by Joanna Newsom
Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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