Between Two Lungs

Anyone who has slept next to someone they love knows what this song is about.

Between Two Lungs is a very special song to me. I was introduced to Florence (& The Machine) the summer of 2011. During that time, my child underwent a double lung transplant due to end stage cystic fibrosis. I pretend this is the story of the donor and my son...

The lyrics "My running feet could fly, each breath screaming we are all too young to die", I think of the donor, and their tragic accident, perhaps their thoughts as they are in an unconscious state between life and death.

The lyrics "The breath that passed from you to me That flew between us as we slept" I think of the actual event, the donor "asleep in death" and my child "asleep via sedation." The death, the harvesting, the surgery.

The last lyrics are so appropriate post transplant. My child no longer is stealing days from death, he is definitely not begging for breath, but his new lungs are near and dear to him, and he prays and thanks his donor and his God of choice regularly. He plays full sets of tennis and has goals of running 5ks and more.

This song echoes a profound event in my life, the tragic death of an organ donor and the new life they gave my child.

This is just one of many interpretations, but I just think it is about the build up of pleasure with the one you love, and how you want it to last but when you reach your peak, it feels like anything is possible, anything. Of course it isn't, and shortly you realize it, but you just don't care, you're just happy to be in the arms of the one you love. For me, I feel it's about sex, but sex with someone you love.

To me, this song means the feeling of euphoria after your significant other finally tells you that they love you. Up until this point, it seems as though the fact that they weren't expressing their love for you was distressing you for a long time. Now that they released their feelings for you (the breath and words that had been blocked up between the two lungs) has had a blissful effect on you. You experience feelings of enchantment, floating and flying freely (the full love effect). You have all those incredibly happy feelings running through you and your veins. Finally, you get the confidence and excitement to finally express your love for him (now that you are fully knowledgeable on the extent of his feelings for you), which will finally complete the intensely passionate exchange between both of your lungs and lips (virtually both your hearts and soul). I absolutely love this song. Everyone who has been in love knows perfectly well how one would feel in this situation =D and those who haven't, it is an experience you must have, even if you get hurt in the end. Love, it's the purpose of life.

I might be wrong, but that second line sounds more like "The breath that carried me" rather then "The breath that captured me".

I think it is 'carried' rather than 'captured' too....

I think in the song, breath is love, 'I have this breath and I hold it tight' and the heart is 'between too lungs' his love passed from him to her, and in the last verse, she's filled with love, and prays it will last... I'm not sure though, just my interpretation :)

It's about a kiss, and the slipt moment where your lungs are sharing air with that other person

this is a beautifully crated song... I agree with cosmiclove "breath" here is a metaphor she uses for love or the famous 3 words "i love you".

i would intepret that the girl and the boy have feelings for each other for a long time but are just too shy to speak it out. that's why she kept repeating "trapped between 2 lungs" in the 2nd verse.

so, when the "breath" was released, it gave her the courage to move closer towards him and to start a relationship as stated in the 1st verse.

now, as they sleep, the boy professes his affection to her repeatedly as mention in the 1st chorus. since they are already a couple, she states that she doesn't need to steal glances at him, or look for love elsewhere. she feels as if flying after knowing how he felt towards her.

she vow to hold tight on to this relationship and pray to god that it will be forever. in the end, she reciprocates by proclaiming her love to him as they make love...as stated in the last 2 lines..

"As it pushes past my lips As I...dance"

I don't know if anyone has noticed this and it's nothing major that contributes to the meaning of the song, but when all the music has finished she shouts 'yay'. I really think this song is the epitome of the album.

It almost sounds like a secret being passed from one to another. It's something she obviously doesn't want to know, saying "We are all to young to die". People begging her to tell them, trying to get it out of her. So in essence she must keep the secret inside her until she "gasps" at the end from having to hold it in for so long. Just my idea (: