I´d say the song is about the father of her daughter. It seems like he either left her or died, the cause however seems to be based outside their relationship. It´s possible that he was dragged into something or did smoething dangerous as in "You were chasing the birds, till the beast caught your eye". So the lions and bears doesn´t have to have a deeper meaning, it could just well be predators. As she still talks about the morning after, this could refer to the person having changed so much, being unrecognizable for her while there are still feelings from the time prior to the change. In this context "i hope you sleep with the merry gold", could mean the person is dead in here eyes. In the end it´s all about the tragedy of not being able to stop the change in that person but still loving him.
I´d say the song is about the father of her daughter. It seems like he either left her or died, the cause however seems to be based outside their relationship. It´s possible that he was dragged into something or did smoething dangerous as in "You were chasing the birds, till the beast caught your eye". So the lions and bears doesn´t have to have a deeper meaning, it could just well be predators. As she still talks about the morning after, this could refer to the person having changed so much, being unrecognizable for her while there are still feelings from the time prior to the change. In this context "i hope you sleep with the merry gold", could mean the person is dead in here eyes. In the end it´s all about the tragedy of not being able to stop the change in that person but still loving him.