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"
It's taken me 50,000 separate wrecks to get here,
And I've learned absolutely nothing.
As I'm standing here alone, upright and motionless,
I'm drowning in her sea.
The rising and sinking of every consciousness I've ever known.
Now detached and disconnected.
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment, endless hope and endless disappointment.
And I thought all I needed was just one breath to stay afloat.
For me it was like... like the breath, the last breath, the last breath that I never wanted.
Any of this.
I'm moving forward.
I never thought that this would capsize,
But this isn't a boat, it's a coffin!
And now I'm moving forward.
Into the sea, into the great sea.
So I begin with the end in mind.
The cycles of heaven, 20 centuries gone by, come home.
I've fallen three miles now, and I still can't shake this dragon,
But the end is coming like a flood.
It is going to be a year for growing and the greatest amount of forgetting.
My sea is dying, but death is a doorway.
And at the very root of me I know this.
It's the greatest reminder.
What a broad world to roam in, what a sea to swim in, so I begin with the end in mind.
And I've learned absolutely nothing.
As I'm standing here alone, upright and motionless,
I'm drowning in her sea.
The rising and sinking of every consciousness I've ever known.
Now detached and disconnected.
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment, endless hope and endless disappointment.
And I thought all I needed was just one breath to stay afloat.
For me it was like... like the breath, the last breath, the last breath that I never wanted.
Any of this.
I'm moving forward.
I never thought that this would capsize,
But this isn't a boat, it's a coffin!
And now I'm moving forward.
Into the sea, into the great sea.
So I begin with the end in mind.
The cycles of heaven, 20 centuries gone by, come home.
I've fallen three miles now, and I still can't shake this dragon,
But the end is coming like a flood.
It is going to be a year for growing and the greatest amount of forgetting.
My sea is dying, but death is a doorway.
And at the very root of me I know this.
It's the greatest reminder.
What a broad world to roam in, what a sea to swim in, so I begin with the end in mind.
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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.
he's in awe at god's wonderful creation when he says "what a broad world we roam in, what a sea to swim in." then he says so i begin with the end in mind. at first i thought that sounded depressing, because the end is death, and dont want to start out by thinking of death. but actually death for us as christians means heaven. so if he's going through a hard time just always think it will be worth it when we die and go to heaven. he also says "but death is a doorway" a doorway to heaven. thats my thoughts on it i like this song a lot.
I think it's important for Norma Jean fans to remember that despite the truth that the meanings to their songs can be interpreted as christian quite easily, they're songs are probably ambiguouse for other reasons. One being so that non christians can also disect their own interpretations that aren't necissarily religious all the time. This band has a talent for multiple meanings and in-depth story telling in a song that isn't individualistic. It helps people like myself enjoy spiritual music without it having to be christian.