Hope Lyrics

Lyric discussion by PencilNeckedGeek 

Cover art for Hope lyrics by R.E.M.

I believe this song was written for a friend of the narrator who is dying of cancer. The friend is suffering and wants to have fun and enjoy his life like everybody else, but he just can't. He wants to go on living, he wants everything to be normal, but it's not. He wants to trust science to make him better and he wants to believe in an afterlife, but he doesn't. He wants to have hope, but he doesn't know where to get it.

I've heard it's not uncommon for cancer sufferers to dream of being eaten by alligators.