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"
They, they come.
The fog it lifts, the shadows shift the wind.
Within the lanterns have been lit.
So slip the night.
So start the race, your nameless place is gone.
I know it's only flight.
I can feel this running close.
I can feel this sinking in.
Can you feel this moving in?
So I say..
While you're sleeping
You know I have escaped
While you're sleeeping
You know I've been erased.
Feel this now.
This healing starts, the motion floods your hope.
Alone, you're moving past your home.
So lift your thoughts.
You're letting go of all you used to know.
And now His blood will flow.
It's the only way. it's the only way.
Feel it runaway, feel it runaway.
While you're sleeping, I can feel this sinking in.
While you're sleeping, can you feel this?
(1 Corinthians 1:28)
The fog it lifts, the shadows shift the wind.
Within the lanterns have been lit.
So slip the night.
So start the race, your nameless place is gone.
I know it's only flight.
I can feel this running close.
I can feel this sinking in.
Can you feel this moving in?
So I say..
While you're sleeping
You know I have escaped
While you're sleeeping
You know I've been erased.
Feel this now.
This healing starts, the motion floods your hope.
Alone, you're moving past your home.
So lift your thoughts.
You're letting go of all you used to know.
And now His blood will flow.
It's the only way. it's the only way.
Feel it runaway, feel it runaway.
While you're sleeping, I can feel this sinking in.
While you're sleeping, can you feel this?
(1 Corinthians 1:28)
Lyrics submitted by RiseUpStandTall
Exhibition Lyrics as written by
Lyrics © Capitol CMG Publishing
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I think this means that while your sleeping God is watching over you and even during the day He's still watching over you.
i agree. with you whole heartedly! This is one of my Favorite songs!
In their CD jacket, they reference a verse - 1 Corinthians 1:28. I think it's talking about Jesus coming to this earth to ultimately die on the cross... "and now His blood will flow"
this song is about how people drift in and out of your life the line "while your sleeping" says while your detached (numb) and "you know i have escaped" means that he has moved on. to correctly interpret the song you need to follow every lyric and interpret them using the chorus.
I've been listening to this song for years and just realized something about it.
I feel like it's about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane right before he's crucified. He talks about how "they come" and how the "lanterns are lit". And the thing that makes me love this interpretation also has to do with a lyric interpretation. I've always heard "Why you sleeping?" But "While you're sleeping" could work too. I see this as the disciples sleeping while Jesus is going through all of this agony in preparation for his crucifixion.
He says "I can feel this sinking in" talking about the fact that it's so close. Everything builds until he says "And now his blood will flow" making me think of how His blood was spilled for us. He also says "it's the only way," which mirrors the beauty of how Jesus prayed for there to be another way, but, ultimately, gave himself to this because he knew it was the only way for justice and mercy to be equally and simultaneously satisfied.
This song just seems to be an extended artistic version of the scripture that it references. The passage that it uses (1 Corinthians Chapter 1) was talking about how God uses the foolish things to confound the wise, and the disregarded things to "nullify" those that are important. I believe it is a song about changing beliefs. Sidenote: This song has my favorite intro of all time.