When this song closes, I still sense a deep yearning so I don't believe that the two lovers are reunited. Everything makes sense as written until the second half.
"After I have traveled so far"
I agree that the lyrics are looking forward, the two lovers haven't been reunited yet.
"We'd set the fire to the third bar"
Is not a literal fire but is saying that nothing else would matter once they find each other. The search would be over. The fire as an image is important because the heat of a fire is in contrast to the cold he is enduring to reach his love.
"We'd share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming pick up from
The last place we left off"
This reinforces that nothing else in the world matters but reaching her and being with her. The island image is brilliant. Note that an island is another warm image.
"Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can't keep it"
This is where I'm lost... "skin is weeping" could mean sweating (which again suggests warmth) but I don't understand "a joy you can't keep it." I wonder if she's dead or otherwise gone to him forever and his journey to find her will never end. Either that, or even if they find one another they can't stay together and he will be forced to return home but I feel like it's the former.
I watched a recording of a live performance of this and both Lightbody and Wainwright sing with such passion. Lightbody is shaking when he sings. So haunting and beautiful, tinged with desperation and yearning.
Not related to the meaning, but here is info from Snow Patrol's MySpace page: "Lightbody wrote the song towards the end of the album sessions and thought it would fit Wainwrights voice perfectly. By chance she was touring Ireland at the time. "Im not a great believer in fate." Says Lightbody. "But when someone called to say "Shes here, in this country and she wants to sing it, that was definitely "a moment."
i think it's suppose to be "a joy you can't keep in" like, the passion and "fire" is so great that her skin is weeping(sweating) from the heat...and it's too bad that you can't contain it.
i think it's suppose to be "a joy you can't keep in" like, the passion and "fire" is so great that her skin is weeping(sweating) from the heat...and it's too bad that you can't contain it.
When this song closes, I still sense a deep yearning so I don't believe that the two lovers are reunited. Everything makes sense as written until the second half.
"After I have traveled so far"
I agree that the lyrics are looking forward, the two lovers haven't been reunited yet.
"We'd set the fire to the third bar"
Is not a literal fire but is saying that nothing else would matter once they find each other. The search would be over. The fire as an image is important because the heat of a fire is in contrast to the cold he is enduring to reach his love.
"We'd share each other like an island Until exhausted, close our eyelids And dreaming pick up from The last place we left off"
This reinforces that nothing else in the world matters but reaching her and being with her. The island image is brilliant. Note that an island is another warm image.
"Your soft skin is weeping A joy you can't keep it"
This is where I'm lost... "skin is weeping" could mean sweating (which again suggests warmth) but I don't understand "a joy you can't keep it." I wonder if she's dead or otherwise gone to him forever and his journey to find her will never end. Either that, or even if they find one another they can't stay together and he will be forced to return home but I feel like it's the former.
I watched a recording of a live performance of this and both Lightbody and Wainwright sing with such passion. Lightbody is shaking when he sings. So haunting and beautiful, tinged with desperation and yearning.
Not related to the meaning, but here is info from Snow Patrol's MySpace page: "Lightbody wrote the song towards the end of the album sessions and thought it would fit Wainwrights voice perfectly. By chance she was touring Ireland at the time. "Im not a great believer in fate." Says Lightbody. "But when someone called to say "Shes here, in this country and she wants to sing it, that was definitely "a moment."
i think it's suppose to be "a joy you can't keep in" like, the passion and "fire" is so great that her skin is weeping(sweating) from the heat...and it's too bad that you can't contain it.
i think it's suppose to be "a joy you can't keep in" like, the passion and "fire" is so great that her skin is weeping(sweating) from the heat...and it's too bad that you can't contain it.