Lately I've been wishing I had one desire
Something that would make me never want another
Something that would make it so that nothing matters
All would be clear then

But I guess I'll have to settle for a for a few brief moments
And watch all dissolve into a single second
And try to write it down into a perfect sonnet
Or one foolish line

Because that's all that you'll get so you'll have to accept
You are here and then you're gone
But I believe that lovers should be tied together and
Thrown into the ocean in the worst of weather

And left there to drown
Left there to drown
In their innocence
But as for me I'm coming to the final chapter

I read all of the pages and there is still no answer
Only all that was before I know must soon come after
That is the only way it can be
So I stand in the sun

And I breathe with my lungs
Trying to spare myself the weight of the truth
Saying everything you have ever seen was just a mirror
And you've spent your whole life sweating in an endless fever

And now you are laying ina bathtum full of freezing water
Wishing you were a ghost
But once you knew a girl and you named her lover
And danced with her in kitchens through the greenest summer

But autumn came, she disappeared
You don't remember where she said she was going to
But you know that she is gone because she left you a song
That you don't want to sing

We're singing I believe that lovers should be chained together
And thrown into a fire with their songs and letters
And left there to burn in their arrogance
But as for me I'm coming to my final failure

I've killed myself with changes trying to make it better
But I still ended up becoming something other than what I had planned to be
Now I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers
And laid entwined together on a bed of clover

And left there to sleep
Left there to dream of their happiness


Lyrics submitted by PLANES, edited by ruttentud

A Perfect Sonnet Lyrics as written by Oberst

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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A Perfect Sonnet song meanings
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  • +2
    General Comment

    I think he's tired of meaningless relationships and he's envious of lovers that last the tests of time. Cupid's arrows have had short lasting side-effects for him. Maybe he just longs for someone worth more than just one nice night, but instead a smattering of goodnights and good-byes leading to later hellos.

    Since relationships have thunder; they're stormy, they're made of both joy and sadness, people give up. But he doesn't want to. And yet he does. It's simple to just skimper in the sunlight, keep things light because people's storms make people weary to wander -weary to love. So if you find desire, cling to it. Stay with it through the "worst of weather." -after the storm comes the calm. and in the end

    True lovers should be draped in flowers. For they've made it through the tests of times.

    electricsweetson February 28, 2010   Link

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