Bastille: Pompeii Meaning
Song Released: 2014
Covered By: Jasmine Thompson
Pompeii Lyrics
Many days fell away with nothing to show
And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Grey clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above
But if you close your eyes,
Does it almost...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:You may have to watch this video to understand the song a little better. Granted, on the surface, it's about the eruption of Pompeii in 79AD. However, when you watch the video, it takes on a whole different meaning. There's a certain lost feeling that Dan is trying to express in the video... about something that may once have been so pure, but has been tainted by time and other forces that he is trying to find again to regain and retain his sense of purity in a world (without that presence) has been overrun by demonic forces, hence the people with the blacked out eyes and the generally abandoned world. It's about how that loss is driving him insane within and is turning him dark inside, though he's doing everything he can to get back to that source of purity. The tempo of the video and the video itself takes on a more frenzied tempo as it keeps going up until the point where he's driving the car and it runs out of gas and he's noticing his eyes turning black (giving into the darkness within himself). At the end, he realizes all is lost and that he cannot regain what was most precious and pure to him. When he turns to the camera with his blacked out eyes, you can see the finality of despair on his face. So, in the end this song is more about a total loss and devastation within. The city is a metaphor for something once so amazing and strong that has been weakened and destroyed by a force that cannot be controlled and the utter devastation that it causes as well as the eternal hopelessness.
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2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:when it says "but if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothings changed at all?"
the song is stating that though there are problems with his life, crushed dreams, failures, even if he tries to pretend that none of it is real, the realization that it is all true is whats really bringing him down
later, it states "O where do we begin? The rubble or our sins?"
this probably means that dan is debating: do I go to the root of my problems to fix it, or do I simply try to cover it up and pretend it never happened? -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:Of course there is the very literal interpretation that the song is just singing about Pompeii, but I read it as a bit more general.
Everyone eventually comes to that point in his or her life when everything they know changes ("And the walls kept tumbling down"), regardless of whether or not you want it to. ("In the city that we love") And it just seems like life will be miserable because everything you loved won't be the same. ("Bringing darkness from above"/"How am I gonna be an optimist about this?")
But, no matter what, you can always latch on to the small details that never change. ("But if you close your eyes,/Does it almost feel like/Nothing changed at all?") -
To: Feb 4th 2017
I liked your post and thought I would respond.
First I must tell you that Feb 4th is a glorious day. Someone very special to me was born on that day. I miss him very much and think about him often.
The only way to solve a problem is go right to the root. Unfortunately once the root has been reached it's where we find ourselves in the rubble dealing with all of our sins. If we ask,God WILL pull us out of the rubble, dust us off and remind us that we are not our sins; we are his children.
Instead of closing your eyes and thinking the bad thoughts, close them and try to picture a Happy moment.The look on someones face that you cherish, a sound that you like, a smell that you like.Maybe getting back to the root will give you a chance to start fresh.To create new Dreams and focus on your successes along the way and not failures.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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My interpretation is that he's changing like growing up.
As a child he thinks that he is never going to grow up, but as he grows up, he thinks that he is growing up and gets scared and sad. -
We were caught up and lost in all of our vices In your pose as the dust settles around us
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People who don't repent and ask God to help them change will continue to feel the walls tumble down. AND the rubble is because they don't change.
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The title “Pompeii” gives away a lot of the meaning of the song. In A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted: “Grey clouds roll over the hills bringing darkness from above.” It hadn’t erupted in 1800 years before that, so the people had no idea it was even a volcano. The eruption happened so quickly that people were mummified almost instantly, which is described in the line: “In your pose as the dust settled around us.”
One of the stories told about Pompeii being buried during that eruption is based on discoveries made since then. When archaeologists uncovered the city, they found many works of erotic art, pornographic in a way unequalled in any other Roman artwork. According to Darren Hibbs, Pompeii was discovered in 1599, and the discoverer Domenico Fontana “was so shocked by what he saw, he didn’t believe it was fit to release upon the world.” In my own Christian background, it is commonly accepted that the eruption of Mount Vesuvius was actually a judgment upon a city so depraved in its sexual mores that God saw fit to destroy it, like he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah of Bible times. The lyrics refer to the sinfulness of the city in the lines: “We were caught up and lost/ in all of our vices”
This sinfulness is also referred to in the allusion made in the lines: “Oh where do we begin?/The rubble or our sins?” Where would the city of Pompeii best begin to recover itself—in removing the rubble and rebuilding, or in removing the sins that they felt had brought on the destruction?
I imagine that the literal meaning of the song, the story of Pompeii, is not the whole meaning, though. I can see it paralleled in romantic relationships—how we make mistakes that destroy our relationship, that bring the “walls . . .tumbling down/In the city that we love.” And yet, at times we can close our eyes, and it can feel as if nothing has changed at all. -
In the beginning of this song, Bastille day-dreams about when he had a grip on time and reality. This day-dream makes him think about the work he had accomplished in his life. When he thinks about his accomplishments, he realizes that he hasn’t done anything noble or even worth his time. Bastille is ripped back into reality in the second verse of this song. He watches as his home and city are destroyed. The “grey clouds” and “darkness from above” directly represent the volcanic ash turning day into night and rushing towards the city.
In the third verse of this song Bastille recalls the beautiful beach town and it’s normal sunny days. He feels as though he’s in a dream, but then comes to reality again and question how he will get through this or how this will turn out not being as bad as he thinks. The fourth verse is about how Bastille was so caught up in the bustle of everyday life and how that blinded him from the true treasures of the moments of life. Then, he gives this idea up as the city is paralyzed by the ash falling. In verse seven he seeks forgiveness for the overwhelmingly many sins that he committed. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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(addition to others interpretation)The line "nothing changed at all" in a literal sense means that like when the village that ash was fallen on was found, the bodies were in perfect condition so its like noting changed at all. And the song is about problems about "walls falling down" and since there is a problem, how can he feel optimistic.
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Well, but if you close your eyes and nothing changed at all means evry thing is frozen in place. Great clouds roll over the the hills means the volcanic ash is coming down on the city
In you pose as the dust settles around us means you are stuck as you died, like a statue. This song is clearly stating a conversation between two statues. Pompeii as every one knows, got destroyed by a earth quake and the volcanic eruption. Where do we start the rubble or our sins means should we rebuild our town(after the earth quake) or dig up the roots of our problems and run away
The verse about the walls means the walls were literaly crumbling away. -
Back In A.D. 79 in the city of Pompeii Mt. Vesuvius erupted the beautiful town was destroyed by the rumbling of the volcano and people lost many precious thing. The black smoke cloud covering the town as the volcano erupted. The town was covered in lava and the people that didn't make it out were covered in the lava to. I think some of the references in the song may relate back to this tragedy. "Losing the city they loved, The Walls Tumbling Down, Great Clouds Rolling Over The Hills Bringing Darkness Above," and relating the how the people in Pompeii lost things that were precious to them.
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As stated by the songwriter, he watched a documentary on Pompeii, and how the people were trapped in the positions they died in. The song is what he imagined as a conversation between two of these people.
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"Pompeii" is basically talking about how you would react if your world was falling apart. If you lost everything (whether it being certain people/friends, or literally), how would you look to the positive side about it?
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