Alright I may be way off but this is how I see it, no research or anything. I feel like the lyrics may tell a story of a lucid dream of some kind in which the singer was forced to live an entire lifetime without the one he loves. All he was given from the real World was his musical box, which plays the song Old King Cole. The song takes place in his last few days in the dream World. He's lost in the half World. Eventually he's gotten used to it. It hardly seems to matter now. He just waits until death when he can finally live in the real World again. I think the line where he says "You stand there with your fixed expression, casting doubt on all I have to say, why don't you touch me?" is great. It's as if he's telling his love about this other life and she just kinda laughs at it, but he doesn't mind, he's just glad to back. It's really a beautiful song.
Alright I may be way off but this is how I see it, no research or anything. I feel like the lyrics may tell a story of a lucid dream of some kind in which the singer was forced to live an entire lifetime without the one he loves. All he was given from the real World was his musical box, which plays the song Old King Cole. The song takes place in his last few days in the dream World. He's lost in the half World. Eventually he's gotten used to it. It hardly seems to matter now. He just waits until death when he can finally live in the real World again. I think the line where he says "You stand there with your fixed expression, casting doubt on all I have to say, why don't you touch me?" is great. It's as if he's telling his love about this other life and she just kinda laughs at it, but he doesn't mind, he's just glad to back. It's really a beautiful song.