Light

First off: really love this song, it's really quiet at times and it really builds up when it needs to. As for the meaning behind this song, I see it one of two ways. When I first heard it I definitely thought it was someone singing to someone that they loved, a lover or spouse or whatever. But as I started listening to it more and singing along to it I noticed something. I personally feel this song could be from a lover to someone they love, or I see it more likely as a parent to their newborn child. There are so many examples throughout the whole song. For example, the first two lines: "May these words be the first to find your ears The world is brighter than the sun now that you're here" The first line makes me think it's a parent who has just been handed their newborn child and they want this pledge of undying devotion and love to be the first thing their child hears. The second line captures the feeling a lot of parents get after they have their first child. In the bridge following the first chorus the singer says that the person this song is directed at has a "heart far too young to realize" which again feels like something a parent would sing to their child not someone to their lover. The chorus really cements it for me. The singer promises to give their child everything they have and teach them everything they can, and while they'll hold their child close to let them know they are loved the parent also knows that eventually they'll have to let their baby go to become adults on their own. They'll "soften every edge," try and dull the sharp painful parts of life and hold the world to a high standard to be good now that their child is in it. And with every moment they have left in life they promise to use it to shield their child from harm. As for the "I'll do better" parts within the chorus, I'm thinking it could mean a couple things. Maybe the parent didn't have good parents themselves, they are promising to do better then their parents did. Or maybe the parent was someone who is struggling in life, an alcoholic or drug addict perhaps? But they are promising to do better for their child. Whatever the reason, this is just what I personally feel the song is about.

I think that this song is about a person who is in love with another person who has been through a lot emotionally and doesn't feel like they are worth anything, maybe has given up with life but the another person wants assure them that they are "loved more than you know" and that they are sorry that they couldn't defend them at the time but now they promise to that they will do better and defend them with every last breath they have so the other person never has to feel like that ever again

I believe he is singing to a new born child and promising he will love that child better than his father loved him.

This is a song from a parent to a child, without a doubt. No one really knows what true love is until you love someone more than you love yourself. This is a beautiful song