In a Week

There is... a melancholy serenity in this song that is absolutely, devastatingly beautiful. The beauty of two lovers caught in eternity, content in one another and content to fade entirely into the greater glory of the forest, seems analogous to course an elderly couple, content to fade away into one another. There's a death-sense in the song, but never a morbid one really, couple that with the instrumentation, and it really does read like lovers at peace, not the heady passion of a new relationship, or even the idolatrous, all consuming devotion so readily apparent in Take Me to Church. No... here is two people at peace with one another, at peace with their end, and even finding joy in that end as they enter it together, at home with and within one another.

My own take on the lyrics come from personal tragedy. My grandson (age 17) and his girlfriend were both struggling with addiction. They were in the process of transitioning out of rehab and had been clean there for 90 days when they were found embraced together in bed, both dead, from a heroine overdose. Months after, his dad introduced me to this song. In the lyrics, we seemed to find a strange sort of peace, a different slant on how it was for them at the end, a way of looking at it from their angle rather than wandering aimlessly, lost in our grief. We found something in the lyrics that strangely resembles comfort.

My opinion of this song is completely different. Wicklow has these beautiful hills which sadly only make it into the news if a body has been found there. I think this song is about two lovers who sneak away into the hills and end up having sex there.

"Our hungers appeased Our heartbeats becoming slow"

When they lie there next to one another they start to feel such peace and serenity

"I have never known peace Like the damp grass that yields to me"

that they imagine what it would be like to stay there forever. What it would be like if they were just bodies.

"We lay here for years or for hours"

They imagine for a moment the rromanticized version of being dead. More of a frozen forever in a moment together than actually dead.

"I'd be home with you I'd be home with you"

I just adore this song I would give anything to have Hozier write me a song. Then again I would give anything for anyone to write me a song. :)

I feel as though this is a couple. They feel at peace in the forest, laying down. They eventually lay "so long we become e flowers" And they do not care, because they are at peace within the earth. Becoming everything's food. Feeling EVERYTHING because they become everything. This song is what I've been feeling for so long & I've never known how to describe it.

I believe this song is about two couples dying in a pasture. It brings on the fact that you’ll feel ready when your dying but will most likely fear it when your still alive. This fact is only strengthened with the lyrics about the sheep and cattle showing fear when watching the couple die. It also brings on an idea that it’s beautiful that their bodies are feeding these animals and that it’s part of the cycle of “going home” meaning going back to into the earth. It’s a serene song that shows that dying is only a process of going home and the couple dying together makes them feel better because their going home together.

I always interpreted this as two lovers getting stuck in a bog and slowly becoming one with the earth alongside one another. I take it as them "being home" is like the afterlife where they can be together once more.

I have never known peace Like the damp grass that yields to me I have never known hunger Like these insects that feast on me

A thousand teeth And yours among them, I know Our hungers appeased Our heartbeats becoming slow

The first verse describes the peace felt in death (the grave being the damp grass which allows him to pass) as well as the ravenous ways of the insects which eat the dead corpses. The second verse continues the interpretation of the insects. A thousand teeth biting at the corpses and among them are the teeth of his loved one. This meaning that the teeth are there not also biting him. Their hunger has been vanguised and their heartbeats have failed to continue in death.

We lay here for years or for hours Thrown here or found To freeze or to thaw So long we become the flowers Two corpses we were Two corpses I saw

And they'd find us in a week When the weather gets hot After the insects have made their claim I'd be home with you I'd be home with you

They will lay in the ground as long as time permits until they are given back to the Earth (we become the flowers). Soon however, their rotting flesh will call all the animals, especially in the hot weather due to this being a more welcoming environment for insects and bacteria. In this return to nature, they have found their home and become part of the Earth again, together.

I have never known sleep Like the slumber that creeps to me I have never known color Like this morning reveals to me

The creeping slumber alludes to death overtaking the two characters. In this act of dying, they are enlightened and see new and unimaginable things such as the sunrise in the morning. The death has not only ended their life but brought forth new ones.

And you haven't moved an inch Such that I would not know If you sleep always like this The flesh calmly going cold

This verse refers to the calm, natural part of death. Death is a natural phenomena and the character is realizing that in a way a person dies every night, in sleep, however this death is permanent and alright.

We lay here for years or for hours Your hand in my hand So still and discreet So long we become the flowers We'd feed well the land And worry the sheep

And they'd find us in a week When the cattle show fear After the insects have made their claim After the foxes have known our taste I'd be home with you I'd be home with you

Essentially this chorus is similar to the last one, just adding to the fact that their rotting corpses give back to the land. The sheep refer to the common man who follows others lead before his own. These sheep are afraid of death and becoming part of the Earth, something bigger than their current lives. The cattle also can portray this. The cattle fear, while the bugs and foxes eat, playing into the grander scheme of the earthly residence.

They'd find us in a week (Lay here for years or for hours) When the weather gets hot (So long we become the flowers) They'd find us in a week (Lay here for years or for hours) When the cattle shows fear (So long we become the flowers)

And they'd find us in a week When the buzzards get loud After the insects have made their claim After the foxes have known our taste After the raven has had its say

I'd be home with you I'd be home with you I'd be home with you I'd be home with you I'd be home with you I'd be home with you

Summary: This song shows the inevitability of death as well as assurance that it is not in vain. The body is reclaimed by the Earth and the two loving characters agree/reassure one another that they go through it together both becoming part of the Earth e.i. going home.

Love this song!

I think it's about being with a now dead lover, not each other but more like they're both speaking and sharing the same feeling about their lovers.

A man and a woman left for dead in a pasture. I love the ambiguity of it since we're not really sure quite what's happened to them, but I'm thinking they were travelling along the road and were robbed and beaten to near death. There's a quiet melancholy to it, the juxtaposition between their persistence to survive—the longing to soon be home again safe in each other's arms—and acceptance of their fate, that they are going to die together, hand in hand.

From Hozier: "'“In A Week' is only a murder ballad if you interpret it as such. It could be a suicide ballad or it could just be a gentle reflection on mortality." -radio.com interview