Everything Beautiful Is Far Away Lyrics

Lyric discussion by mtolsky 

Cover art for Everything Beautiful Is Far Away lyrics by Grandaddy

I always thought this song was making some allusion to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Obviously, the mentioning of the cave is what first gave me that idea. But the lines

he'd seen plenty of mirages and imaginery visitors up until then so he wasn`t sure what to think when he saw swans

and

and the pictures of his loved ones that he drew on the wall of the cave had finally faded.

really, really remind me of how in Plato's allegory, the people only could see the shadows of real p eople and things reflected onto the walls of the cave, and so thought those images were the real thing. then, when the man was let out into the real world, he didn't know what to make of all the actual real things he saw. I haven't read the allegory in a couple of years so i don't remember all of it and am not sure how the rest of the song fits in, but I definatley think there's evidence that this song is related in someway.