Have you ever fed a lover with just your hands?
Close your eyes and trust it, just trust it
Have you ever thrown a fist full of glitter in the air?
Have you ever looked fear in the face
And said I just don't care?

And it's only half past the point of no return
The tip of the iceberg
The sun before the burn
The thunder before the lightning
Breath before the phrase
Have you ever felt this way?

Have you ever hated yourself for staring at the phone?
You're whole life waiting on the ring to prove you're not alone
Have you ever been touched so gently you had to cry?
Have you ever invited a stranger to come inside?

It's only half past the point of oblivion
The hourglass on the table
The walk before the run
The breath before the kiss
And the fear before the flames
Have you ever felt this way?

La la la la la la la la

There you are, sitting in the garden
Clutching my coffee
Calling me sugar
You called me sugar

Have you ever wished for an endless night?
Lassoed the moon and the stars and pulled that rope tight
Have you ever held your breath and asked yourself
Will it ever get better than tonight?
Tonight


Lyrics submitted by youaintright20, edited by kgabino8

Glitter in the Air Lyrics as written by William Mann Alicia Moore

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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Glitter In The Air song meanings
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  • +9
    General Comment

    i think that this song is about those life defining moments of your life that make you who you are, those moments that make you glad to be alive. doing something and looking back without any regrets. it's about wanting to be loved. it's about wanting time to never end, loving someone and being loved back. it's about trust, companionship and closeness, and reaching out to those around you, and how that can just make you feel like you "just don't care" "the thunder before the lightning" represents the seconds of doubt/worry before a defining moment and just having the guts to do it... "there you are sitting in my garden, clutching my coffee, calling me sugar" for me, represents that after taking the risk to reach out to someone, they may reach out to you too, and become part of your life, like you had never been apart, and now they are casually sitting in your garden sharing your coffee... this song makes you think twice about everyone around you and how much they mean to you. maybe i'm crazy, i've never done anything like this before! but i think that summarises the power of this song ;)

    picturethesceneon January 30, 2009   Link
  • +5
    My Interpretation

    I think it's a song about meeting someone and realizing that you're quickly falling in love with them, and being afraid that they won't feel the same way. But she decides that what she stands to gain if they do is worth the risk of getting hurt, and is trying to work up the courage to tell them how she feels. So when she finds him in the garden and he calls her "Sugar" she feels a sense of relief at the term of endearment and is filled with that sense of bliss that you get when love really starts blooming and she doesn't want the night to end, hence the lines about the endless night and lassoing the moon to keep it from coming to an end.

    apriluofaon February 14, 2010   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    i think when she says "Have you ever fed a lover With just your hands Closed your eyes And trusted, just trusted"

    she is asking if you've gave a lover your heart and trusted them not to break it.

    she has trusted this person and in the end he is "setting in her garden, clutching her coffee, calling her sugar." so it was worth trusting him in the end because he is there with her.

    richniggashiton December 21, 2009   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    This is a love song. A true love song; one of the most real, most vivid, most honest love songs I think I've ever heard.

    It starts with a wish and so much emotion. Like the title of the song: have you ever thrown a fistful of glitter in the air? I mean, what an image! It's giving up control, throwing yourself into the wind and not caring about what kind of mess it makes, and not even knowing what's going to happen, but trusting it–looking fear in the face and saying "I just don't care", that's exactly it. "Have you ever fed a lover with just your hand" is a beautiful, subtle metaphor for feeding a horse, holding out your hand and flattening it out and trusting that it won't bite you! She compares a lover to this animal waiting to be fed, and love to this wild uncontrollable thing that honestly can't be tamed, and she knows it.

    Then so much anticipation and uncertainty, unpredictability, and raw feeling–the tip of the iceberg, the sun before the burn, the breath before the phrase, the thunder before the lightning–just those last two images placed right next to each other, man, talking compared to lightning? A simple breath with all the weight and power of thunder? Yeah, that's truth right there.

    "Have you ever hated yourself for waiting by the phone? Your whole life waiting on the ring to prove you're not alone." I gasped out loud and nearly cried when I realized the double-entendre of "waiting on a ring." And how perfecly, how magically that ties up both the beginning and the peak of a relationship, waiting for a phone call, waiting for a proposal, and how important those two points are; how incredible life-changing and joyous, or how completely desolate and lonely. Either way.

    "Have you ever been touched so gently you had to cry?" Because so many times, the touch has been harsh, time has killed small parts of her, this animal of love that she had trusted had bitten her, the trust was betrayed, the decision went the other way; all of that, all the pain and loneliness of simply being human, and then one person comes in and with a gentle touch, a moment of happiness, contrasted against all that thunder and lightning, against strangers, against time, against everything that is wrong about life; it's almost spiritual when it goes right.

    And throughout, the sense of endless passage of time and the constant evolution, of being able to grasp this thing, this animal, only for a moment before it disappears completely: "it's only half past the point of oblivion," (time will eventually undo all), "the hourglass on the table, the walk before the run"–soon the time will be up, everything will speed up, the glitter will be on the floor, the mess will have to be dealt with, reality will set back in, but "have you ever felt this way?" Just for a moment?

    Then the image of that moment. There they are, a lover, just in a day to day moment, sitting in the garden with her coffee, calling her Sugar. So simple, so clear, but this is a moment of pure, unadulterated happiness: a time in her life that's completely right. Yet, it's nested between this fear of the passage of time, the fear of a beginning and the fear of an end, in-between absolutely everything that has happened and could happen and will happen, and somehow, in the midst of it all, she still manages to be so happy.

    And she wants to keep that, so badly–she wants it to pause, she wants to be in this moment forever, she wants to lasso the moon, do the impossible, hold your breath so maybe–just maybe–time stops. And have you ever asked yourself, "Will it ever get better than tonight?" Time will keep marching on, and the uncertainty in that question–it's not rhetorical I don't think–is astounding. Will there ever be a moment better than this one, ever? If not, then what does that mean for the rest of her life? What if things go sour? What if time keeps slipping? What if these moments fade away and we can't keep them?

    It's bittersweet. The best moments of our lives will pass. "Have you ever" is repeated so many times in this song, and for good reason–this is a memory. This is in the past. She's looking back on it with reverence, as a sequence of events that led up to the best one she can remember, one that she looks at in awe and amazement, one that she recognizes is so beautiful that she may never have another experience exactly like it ever again. And there's something deeply sad about that, about that entire condition, which is, I think, why this is not strictly a happy song.

    But it is real. So real. This is why I said this is the truest love song I have ever heard. Love is not happy, love is not sweet, nor is love sour or bitter or unkind. It is all of those things at once, and sometimes none at all. One moment may be an absolute divine revelation, the next might be having coffee in the garden, the next might be goodbye, or a phone call or maybe a proposal, and after that could be anything. But all of that is part of love and part of life. And here we are sitting in the middle of it, taking just one moment at a time, and how crazy and amazing it is that you're sitting here calling me sugar drinking coffee in the midst of a hurricane of emotions; that you are the eye of the storm, an incredible calm when everything before is painful, everything after is uncertain, and everything around is spinning wildly. Will it ever get better than tonight? I think the last note this song leaves is positive, uplifting, if only that she leaves that question open, waiting to be answered: maybe with you here, it will get better. We can have more of this. It is possible, and as hard as it is to believe, she just has to trust it.

    This song is masterful. How much truth, how much emotional reality and intelligence there is packed into this I can't even begin to describe. And the way she sings it! Throws her heart and soul out there for everyone to see, like glitter in the air.

    triswebon March 30, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    this is a deep song.

    one of my favourites off of funhouse.

    thrwmyhrtawy.on October 28, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    It's about giving your heart to someone and learning to know and love them, and not knowing if they'll do the same.

    I love this song. It shows off her voice so well, and she really put her heart into it.. it's beautiful.

    Also I'm pretty sure it's "the thunder before the lightning and the breath before the phrase" to fill in the question marks =)

    xLadYofSorrowZxon October 30, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Ahh I adore this song. :) The first time I listened to this I got goosebumps. It seems to me to be about the perfect moments, the moments you'd give everything for, the moments you'll never forget. And I think it's "the breath before the phrase" where the question marks are too. :)

    MayaMooon November 19, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Everytime I hear that line: "you called me sugar", I feel I am being ripped open. So powerful.

    icesk8ngurlon May 23, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    YOU CALLED ME SUGARRRRRR!!!!!!!

    annieTLSon September 17, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    if you just read the lyrics it seems like it would be a happy love song but when you hear it...it sounds like theres pain in her voice or maybe regret theres just something in it that makes my heart ache everytime i listen to it

    sarah582on December 31, 2009   Link

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