I feel like the guy in the song "failed" to save his girlfriend from suicide. The first verse is the bargaining stage of grief. He's begging to turn back the clock and stop her. He's hating himself because he feels that if he'd only "found the right words to say," she might still be alive.
The second verse is denial. He can't get over the shock. He'd probably planned out a whole future with her in his head and now she's gone. The "rockface" is likely a cliff that she jumped from. He wants to go there and feel her "ghost," pretend she's still with him.
"And I'd like to change all this, and I'd like to wake up from this by your side." Bargaining, depression, denial, all wrapped up in one desperate, pleading sentence.
The third verse is him wondering how he didn't see it before. He's probably noticing the signs in retrospect. Or, maybe he did have suspicions that she might try to hurt herself, but her brief moments of happiness overshadowed his worries. Either way, he's blaming himself again.
In the final verse, he's remembering the last time he saw her. Trying to make sense of the "flash of her love as she waves goodbye." And then someone (most likely family or a friend) is telling him that there was nothing he could have done. It's not his fault.
I feel like the guy in the song "failed" to save his girlfriend from suicide. The first verse is the bargaining stage of grief. He's begging to turn back the clock and stop her. He's hating himself because he feels that if he'd only "found the right words to say," she might still be alive.
The second verse is denial. He can't get over the shock. He'd probably planned out a whole future with her in his head and now she's gone. The "rockface" is likely a cliff that she jumped from. He wants to go there and feel her "ghost," pretend she's still with him.
"And I'd like to change all this, and I'd like to wake up from this by your side." Bargaining, depression, denial, all wrapped up in one desperate, pleading sentence.
The third verse is him wondering how he didn't see it before. He's probably noticing the signs in retrospect. Or, maybe he did have suspicions that she might try to hurt herself, but her brief moments of happiness overshadowed his worries. Either way, he's blaming himself again.
In the final verse, he's remembering the last time he saw her. Trying to make sense of the "flash of her love as she waves goodbye." And then someone (most likely family or a friend) is telling him that there was nothing he could have done. It's not his fault.
But in the end he can't let go.
Damn I'm emo. I blame Snow Patrol.