I think the first part is reminiscing about childhood in its innocence and security. Maybe padding around the kitchen in footed pjs getting a milk before he went to sleep.
Then he sings about a cold wind rocking his childhood sleep. Rocking in reference to a cradle - down came baby, cradle and all, symbolic of the real world ('out where the cold wind blows') stealing the life he knew in the glow of the kitchen in the first part.
I think the contrast is the childhood bedtime versus the man lying awake, the cozy drifting off to sleep of the one, the insomniac ('hours pass') alone in a sleeping city with his cold ('nothing more than this') adult life. I think 'gone the dream' refers to the death of the safe childhood world, replaced by the 'nothing more than this' reality.
I also wonder if the face shining upon him of the first part is a loved one that later died?
This is a great song. Depressing, but great.
I think the first part is reminiscing about childhood in its innocence and security. Maybe padding around the kitchen in footed pjs getting a milk before he went to sleep.
Then he sings about a cold wind rocking his childhood sleep. Rocking in reference to a cradle - down came baby, cradle and all, symbolic of the real world ('out where the cold wind blows') stealing the life he knew in the glow of the kitchen in the first part.
I think the contrast is the childhood bedtime versus the man lying awake, the cozy drifting off to sleep of the one, the insomniac ('hours pass') alone in a sleeping city with his cold ('nothing more than this') adult life. I think 'gone the dream' refers to the death of the safe childhood world, replaced by the 'nothing more than this' reality.
I also wonder if the face shining upon him of the first part is a loved one that later died?