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.
Wipe the blood from your lip
With the flesh of your hand
Theres no thorn in the side left to grow
So lets cherish the names that we lost for an age
With the rue now the supper must go
Where traditions they blend lives a home on the mend
The grass glistens now for alls eyes
So lets sever the shame we have come to reclaim
With the waters retreat feel the shore for us
Woth the red rose pales lay a thousand graves many more
Where the ghost still haunt for the day we come to the fore
[Chorus]
Don't look back
For whats dead now is safe
The exiled, a home where the soul kept safe
Take me back on the crest of a wave
No more tears for you paddy's lament
No more tears
No more paddy's
Lament
Rip the greet from his heart
Theres no sorrow tonight
For once banished dreams sleep divine
Where the silence you hear is the prosper we shared
The only blade is a razor sharp smile
Still the church bell rings the collective sings that still roam
But the only thing left is the pain of nothing once more
[Chorus]
Grab the leaf of the branch from the tree in the ground
Where the roots claimed the earth many tioled
To a land that now stands under no-ones command
And her beauty let no man destroy
So remember the gun and the damage it's done
The last drop as been spilled for you and I
Let there be no despair for the rule we once shared
Brush the tear from the eye that still shines
Where the red rose pales lay a thousand graves many more
Where the ghost still haunt for the day we come to the fore
[Chorus: x2]
No more tears
No more paddy's
Lament
With the flesh of your hand
Theres no thorn in the side left to grow
So lets cherish the names that we lost for an age
With the rue now the supper must go
Where traditions they blend lives a home on the mend
The grass glistens now for alls eyes
So lets sever the shame we have come to reclaim
With the waters retreat feel the shore for us
Woth the red rose pales lay a thousand graves many more
Where the ghost still haunt for the day we come to the fore
[Chorus]
Don't look back
For whats dead now is safe
The exiled, a home where the soul kept safe
Take me back on the crest of a wave
No more tears for you paddy's lament
No more tears
No more paddy's
Lament
Rip the greet from his heart
Theres no sorrow tonight
For once banished dreams sleep divine
Where the silence you hear is the prosper we shared
The only blade is a razor sharp smile
Still the church bell rings the collective sings that still roam
But the only thing left is the pain of nothing once more
[Chorus]
Grab the leaf of the branch from the tree in the ground
Where the roots claimed the earth many tioled
To a land that now stands under no-ones command
And her beauty let no man destroy
So remember the gun and the damage it's done
The last drop as been spilled for you and I
Let there be no despair for the rule we once shared
Brush the tear from the eye that still shines
Where the red rose pales lay a thousand graves many more
Where the ghost still haunt for the day we come to the fore
[Chorus: x2]
No more tears
No more paddy's
Lament
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
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Paddy's Lament, or "Paddy's Lamentation" is an Irish Folk Song written about the disillusionment felt by many of the original Irish immigrants to America, as they were made to fight in America's wars almost as soon as they arrived. The poem describes the horrors of fighting in a war not theirs, and thus the song is a reflection of the times we live in...where America is yet again fighting a war that doesn't need to be fought, and everyone else is being made to choose sides.
The song is partly an anti-war song in that sense, and is more or less saying that war tears families and friends apart needlessly. It's also trying to make the point that too often we repeat ourselves and that breaking away from this vicious cycle would mean an age of respite for the world.
Saw them live on the 14th of March. Dave said it was about the fact that there's finally peace in Ireland, though, still no unity or freedom form the crown...
one irish rover's got my number. its all about how the irish have found peace, but G.B. isn't giving in to freedom. also, i think its also about how many irishmen are trying to rouse the populace into violence against the crown, and the negative effects it could have
"Don't look back for what's dead now is saved"
This is my favorite song on the new album. Aesthetically (sp?) very pleasing. Haven't had a chance to really delve deeper yet but I loved so much I felt a need to comment.
The song is about excepting what Ireland has become. Things are well there, better then they have been. Why ruin a good thing with constant fighting? The Prods and Cathys have been fighting for centurys so they should stop now, no more blood.
Paddy's Lament is an Irish folk song about Irish immigrants being asked to fight in the American Civil War as soon as they got to America, and then these immigrants ended up wishing they'd stayed in Ireland. They left Ireland because there are no jobs there (which Dave King also said in Black Friday Rule) but then they realized they'd rather be jobless and hungry than fighting in a war they didn't want to fight.
Fast forward to the 21st Century, there are still no jobs in Ireland, but America is no longer fighting a Civil War. So like he said in Black Friday Rule, Dave King tells us again that America is a better place to be than Ireland these days. Therefore, Irish immigrants should no longer be singing a song about longing for home. Hence: "No More Paddy's Lament."