Forgetting Fiction

Doe Eyes

1 Meaning

Add Yours

Q&A

Doe Eyes Lyrics

Cash in, and cashed out
The right thing would be to let you go
But don't let me let you go

And I'll be waiting
For you to come back and let me know
That you're mine to call my own

But you won't say that, will you?
I get it, darling. You're better off alone
But I won't say that to you. You get it don't you?
I've got no place to go

Doe eyes; she don't care for love, she don't care for mine
So doe eyes, would you let me go?
At sunrise, she won't say goodbye, she won't say goodbye to me, no
By sunset, I'm on my own

Let up, or let down
The worst thing was always to let you go
But I had to let you know

A promise that I'd keep
From my lips to your cheek

But we belong to each other
Like wide eyes, empty roads, and night skies
But we belong to trouble too

Doe eyes; she don't care for love, she don't care for mine
So doe eyes, would you let me go?
At sunrise, she won't say goodbye, she won't say goodbye to me, no
By sunset, I'm on my own

The secrets that we hide
Behind my back and your eyes
A promise that you broke
From your skin to his bones

Submitted by

jbaronia On Mar 05, 2013

ISNTAYWIST

997 to Go

Cash in, and cashed out
The right thing would be to let you go
But don't let me let you go

And I'll be waiting
For you to come back and let me know
That you're mine to call my own

But you won't say that, will you?
I get it, darling. You're better off alone
But I won't say that to you. You get it don't you?
I've got no place to go

Doe eyes; she don't care for love, she don't care for mine
So doe eyes, would you let me go?
At sunrise, she won't say goodbye, she won't say goodbye to me, no
By sunset, I'm on my own

Let up, or let down
The worst thing was always to let you go
But I had to let you know

A promise that I'd keep
From my lips to your cheek

But we belong to each other
Like wide eyes, empty roads, and night skies
But we belong to trouble too

Doe eyes; she don't care for love, she don't care for mine
So doe eyes, would you let me go?
At sunrise, she won't say goodbye, she won't say goodbye to me, no
By sunset, I'm on my own

The secrets that we hide
Behind my back and your eyes
A promise that you broke 
From your skin to his bones

Lyrics saved successfully! Thanks!

These lyrics are currently locked and can only be edited by moderators and administrators.

You must be logged in to edit lyrics.

Unable to save lyrics. Please try again.

Lyrics cannot contain links.

Lyric edit submitted successfully and is pending approval. Approvals usually take 24 hours.

Keep it true to the song

Fix what’s wrong, but don’t rewrite what the artist wrote. Stick to the official released version — album booklet, label site, verified lyric video, etc. If you’re guessing, pause and double-check.

Respect the structure

Songs have rhythm. Pages do too. Leave line breaks where they belong. Don’t smash things together or add extra empty space just for looks.

Punctuation counts (but vibe-editing doesn’t)

Correct typos? Yes. Re-punctuating a whole verse because it ‘looks better’? Probably not. Keep capitalization and punctuation close to the official source.

Don’t mix versions

If you’re editing the explicit version, keep it explicit. If it’s the clean version, keep it clean. No mashups.

Let the lyrics be lyrics

This isn’t the place for interpretations, memories, stories, or trivia — that’s what comments are for. Keep metadata, translations, and bracketed stage directions out unless they’re officially part of the song.

Edit lightly

If two lines are wrong… fix the two lines. No need to bulldoze the whole page. Think ‘surgical,’ not ‘remix.’

When in doubt, ask the crowd

Not sure what they’re singing in that fuzzy bridge? Drop a question in the comments and let the music nerds swarm. Someone always knows.

jbaronia

Submitter

2013-03-05 07:20:52

1 Meaning

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Sort by

by jbaronia

11y ago

"Doe Eyes" is a song that I consider unlike any other that I'd written at the time. Lyrically, most of the songs on DWAEPS were built on wordy verses and the occasionally simplistic hook here and there, not unlike a series of poems with some acoustic guitar tracks behind them. I was more focused on telling a complete story with every track. With "Doe Eyes," I just sort of let go of the reigns and started writing the most natural sounding "radio" rock chorus that I could. Thankfully, I liked where it was going and just ran with it.

Explicitly, the verses mirror each other in that they both convey the internal conflict of realizing that the "right" thing to do in a relationship might also be considered the "worst," or most difficult, thing to do. And honestly, what's harder then letting go?

As a symbol, "doe eyes" are meant to represent the deceptively beautiful and innocent. This idea is reinforced in the bridge/ outro: "The secrets that we hide / Behind my back and your eyes" In the context of the song, doe eyes are symbolic of one's inability to "see" through his/her own idealized conceptions of a person they might love or otherwise have feelings for. The motif of sight is huge in this sense, as we are often more than willing to "see only what we want to see" in the people we love. The great tragedy here is that we almost always try and romanticize the people over whom we hurt the most.

OTHER NOTES:

I came up with the title while Snapchatting a girl. She always made these huge "doe eyes" in her selfies. The actual term "doe eyes" was just something that I'd heard in TV shows and other music.
The phrase "cashed out" in the opening verse was inspired by a trip I took to San Diego with a bunch of my best friends after high school. We went to a casino and the machines would print out these "cash out tickets" to claim however much money you had made/ lost. I vividly remember looking at my cash out ticket that had read "$0.02" and realizing it was time to stop. In the song, "cashed out" is a reference to understanding when it's time to stop something - or in this case, to let go.
The outro line "From your skin to his bones" is a reference to the chorus in the song "Slow" from DWAEPS: "Why don't, why don't you know? / Without your skin I'm just bones"

Song Meaning

OTHER NOTES:
- I came up with the title while Snapchatting a girl. She always made these huge "doe eyes" in her selfies. The actual term "doe eyes" was just something that I'd heard in TV shows and other music.
- The phrase "cashed out" in the opening verse was inspired by a trip I took to San Diego with a bunch of my best friends after high school. We went to a casino and the machines would print out these "cash out tickets" to claim however much money you had made/ lost. I vividly remember looking at my cash out ticket that had read "$0.02" and realizing it was time to stop. In the song, "cashed out" is a reference to understanding when it's time to stop something - or in this case, to let go.
- The outro line "From your skin to his bones" is a reference to the chorus in the song "Slow" from DWAEPS: "Why don't, why don't you know? / Without your skin I'm just bones"

Reason:

Users:

Reply · 0 Share

Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.