I know everyone says that this is about someone dying, but I'm not sure it has to be. If it is, it adds the complication of his parents apparently outliving him, even though his relationship seems to have been going on a very long time, with children, the newness wearing off ("unfamiliar but until now", "learned to cradle then live without"), etc. It's also fits very well into a sad breakup scenario - the tragedy of giving up after a lifetime of trying.
As for the specifics, I think there's a lot of over-analyzing here. "Rooms unfamiliar but until now" seems simply to suggest a new love grown old. The exciting places you made love when you first met tend to dwindle down over the years to one or two familiar, unexciting ones.
To me, "I loved your son for his sturdy arms..." suggests the same thing. Depending on each other when love is new to be supportive and "there"...to have and to hold, as it were. Young lovers cradle each other, but over time, particularly if a distance grows between them, they may "learn to live without".
I have no idea what the "judgment day" line is about. I'm open to anyone else's idea there, though the diving and rising can again suggest the highs and lows of a relationship.
The last stanza is easy to me and again, I think totally overthought by some other posters. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but it's just about never seeing the person again by day (i.e. in the actual "light") but when the light stops exposing you to a loved one (whether a death or breakup), you'll surely be haunted a bit by the memory of that face when the busy distractions of the day are over and you are lying in bed at night, asleep or awake. When people are gone and we won't see them again in the light of day, their face "lingers on" each coming night. This is the "deal"
Whether it's about death or not, it's still a lovely, sad, sweet song.
I know everyone says that this is about someone dying, but I'm not sure it has to be. If it is, it adds the complication of his parents apparently outliving him, even though his relationship seems to have been going on a very long time, with children, the newness wearing off ("unfamiliar but until now", "learned to cradle then live without"), etc. It's also fits very well into a sad breakup scenario - the tragedy of giving up after a lifetime of trying.
As for the specifics, I think there's a lot of over-analyzing here. "Rooms unfamiliar but until now" seems simply to suggest a new love grown old. The exciting places you made love when you first met tend to dwindle down over the years to one or two familiar, unexciting ones.
To me, "I loved your son for his sturdy arms..." suggests the same thing. Depending on each other when love is new to be supportive and "there"...to have and to hold, as it were. Young lovers cradle each other, but over time, particularly if a distance grows between them, they may "learn to live without".
I have no idea what the "judgment day" line is about. I'm open to anyone else's idea there, though the diving and rising can again suggest the highs and lows of a relationship.
The last stanza is easy to me and again, I think totally overthought by some other posters. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but it's just about never seeing the person again by day (i.e. in the actual "light") but when the light stops exposing you to a loved one (whether a death or breakup), you'll surely be haunted a bit by the memory of that face when the busy distractions of the day are over and you are lying in bed at night, asleep or awake. When people are gone and we won't see them again in the light of day, their face "lingers on" each coming night. This is the "deal"
Whether it's about death or not, it's still a lovely, sad, sweet song.