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.
Monday the twenty-sixth of March:
The patient's passing seizures are becoming more pronounced by the day
The underlying cause seems to be some slow progressive decay
If I don't find a cure, I fear my patient must surely fade away
But I swear, I'll apply my science
To the cause
Brooking no defiance
I'll deliver her from this malady
She'll dance again
And I'll never forget when we first were courting
And she faced me, and her eyes were gleaming
In the moonlight, and she spoke so sweetly:
Don't let me go, my darling
Hold me safely 'til the morning
Promise when the lights are fading
You'll save me
Tuesday the seventeenth of May:
A worrying symptom has reared its head this week
She's been bedbound for a month
And now the patient is no longer able to speak
She tries to utter sounds
But the grip of the illness is strong and the patient is weak
On the bed, in a cold sweat
Like a corpse, but she'll live yet
When I find the cure, I can surely promise
She'll laugh again
And she did on our wedding day
When we danced, and laughed the world away
Even now I can hear her say:
Don't let me go, my darling
Hold me safely 'til the morning
Promise when the lights are fading
You'll save me
Sunday the twenty-third of June:
The patient no longer responds to stimuli of any kind
She's now my only charge
I clothe her and feed her, and nightly I read by her side
For though she's paralysed
I know that inside there must still be a functioning mind
Neatly laid on the bedsheet
I can still hear her fading heartbeat
I'll keep her stable and continue my research
She'll smile again
And I must bring her back to me
In her eyes I can see the gleam
In my mind I can hear her pleading:
Don't let me go, my darling
Hold me safely 'til the morning
Promise when the lights are fading
You'll save me
Tuesday the eighteenth of July:
My latest apparatus is the only thing that's keeping her alive
I had to stop her heart
The mechanical replacement will ensure the other organs can survive
Her body is destroyed
But what nature has neglected, the fruit of modern science shall provide
And I've broken every code of practice
But for my love, I'd shift the planet's axis
She'll return to me when she's been repaired
She'll live again
And I swear I can see the gleam
In her eyes amidst the new machines
And at night I can hear her whisper:
Don't let me go, my darling
Hold me safely 'til the morning
Promise when the lights are fading
You'll save me
The patient's passing seizures are becoming more pronounced by the day
The underlying cause seems to be some slow progressive decay
If I don't find a cure, I fear my patient must surely fade away
But I swear, I'll apply my science
To the cause
Brooking no defiance
I'll deliver her from this malady
She'll dance again
And I'll never forget when we first were courting
And she faced me, and her eyes were gleaming
In the moonlight, and she spoke so sweetly:
Don't let me go, my darling
Hold me safely 'til the morning
Promise when the lights are fading
You'll save me
Tuesday the seventeenth of May:
A worrying symptom has reared its head this week
She's been bedbound for a month
And now the patient is no longer able to speak
She tries to utter sounds
But the grip of the illness is strong and the patient is weak
On the bed, in a cold sweat
Like a corpse, but she'll live yet
When I find the cure, I can surely promise
She'll laugh again
And she did on our wedding day
When we danced, and laughed the world away
Even now I can hear her say:
Don't let me go, my darling
Hold me safely 'til the morning
Promise when the lights are fading
You'll save me
Sunday the twenty-third of June:
The patient no longer responds to stimuli of any kind
She's now my only charge
I clothe her and feed her, and nightly I read by her side
For though she's paralysed
I know that inside there must still be a functioning mind
Neatly laid on the bedsheet
I can still hear her fading heartbeat
I'll keep her stable and continue my research
She'll smile again
And I must bring her back to me
In her eyes I can see the gleam
In my mind I can hear her pleading:
Don't let me go, my darling
Hold me safely 'til the morning
Promise when the lights are fading
You'll save me
Tuesday the eighteenth of July:
My latest apparatus is the only thing that's keeping her alive
I had to stop her heart
The mechanical replacement will ensure the other organs can survive
Her body is destroyed
But what nature has neglected, the fruit of modern science shall provide
And I've broken every code of practice
But for my love, I'd shift the planet's axis
She'll return to me when she's been repaired
She'll live again
And I swear I can see the gleam
In her eyes amidst the new machines
And at night I can hear her whisper:
Don't let me go, my darling
Hold me safely 'til the morning
Promise when the lights are fading
You'll save me
Lyrics submitted by mediocremurphy, edited by minuette
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
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
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"
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.
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.
a somewhat popular reference in music is the story of Carl Tanzler or Carl von Kossel, who was a german-born radiologist who came upon a young cuban-american lady named Elena de Hoyos in his hospital. she was dying of tuberculosis. When he couldn't save her (though he tried) he payed for her funeral and established her own above-ground mausoleum. he visited for a year during which he said that "Elena's spirit would come to him when he would sit by her grave and serenade her corpse with a favorite Spanish song, and she would often tell him to take her from the grave" (sounds like the chorus...) He eventually excavated her body, took it to his house, encased it with wax, and placed her on his bed...