Billy Talent: White Sparrows Meaning
White Sparrows Lyrics
Past the diner where we'd meet
Now I dine alone in our old seats
The cold wind blows right through my bones
And I feel like I'm getting old
But I wish I was getting old with you
I held your hand when
We...
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The song reminds me of an apocalypse. People are dieing and his child dies by the virus. Now he walks the town of the dead with no survivors, only memories. He reflects about his kid and himself taking shelter from the rain, and then says remembers how his wife died before and that he doesn't have a daughter after all. He remembers picking out her name and remember the future, but then he gets angry and starts breaking things. Crying in pain and feeling stuck with the memorable memories and visions they had. He just remembers everyone getting infected and his life leaving his finger tips in such a short time. He wonder's why the heavens chose her. White sparrows is his interpretion of angels falling or loved ones dieing, sparrow refers to a ladies name for popularity and it refers to the recurring theme in his mind, and black arrows is him thinking about slitting his wrists because the world will never be the same and he can't go back. Biblical references about heaven, praying, and God selecting peoples "time" is showing the morality and ethical perspective to life and he doesn't see it as fair.
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About the "they gave her one more day" line, I personally read this as she was on life support, and they gave her one more day before they pulled the plug so that everyone could say goodbye ("to say the words that I couldnt say")
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[In the first verse He is talking about how when they went out together they'd always meet at the same diner and now that he's not with her he goes back there by himself because he is lonely and misses her. As time passes he still misses her dearly and he wish he could be with her
Second verse is him thinking about old memories with her
Chorus is saying that she was taken away by white sparrows and arrows hitting his heart.. The white is to show that she is going to a better, almost majestical place, while he is left here on earth hit by dark arrows, representing sadness and loneliness and his heart just feels physically cut up because he's in so much pain from losing her.
After losing her he doesn't want to get rid of her stuff, because it would be like getting rid of her, forgetting about her. And then he thinks back to when the doctor called and told him the news about that his wife/gf had died, and he feels numb with pain.
He is holding her casket to hold her one last time, and he is so hurt that he feels like the woke universe is affected by his pain, there for the sun won't shine again, his world will always be dark and gloomy
Chorus again, but then there's that extended part, where he just wishes he could've told her he loved her one last time, told her good bye, but he can't, he won't ever see her again...
He isn't looking for an explanation of anything except for why it was her who had to go. Why did she have t be the one who was taken off the earth? He's just so hurt and he wishes it was anyone but her.
Chorus and extended part again, and then he says that their love will remain, meaning he won't forget and he won't love anyone else... ]
It's a very powerful depressing song. I every time I hear it, and in fact while writing this I cried. How this relates to my bf is that before me, his girlfriend committed suicide. He was so hurt and even though he's decided not to live in sadness, he still wishes he could have said goodbye.. He told me about how he tried everything to get rid of the pain, he tried breaking things, crying in pain.. Nothing worked. He did find a release with cutting... I forget what exactly caused him to stop, but even though he's still sad, he's done with the extreme mourning. Just imagining what he went through, how much losing someone you love more than yourself, it's an unbearably sad thought. I wish he never had to go through something as tragic as that... And it's not like he's old either, this happened when he was only 16. To be so young and go through something like that... I can't even begin to imagine how much pain he went through. -
I've always viewed this similarly to everyone else here, but with one difference. I always connect the below lyrics directly with eachother, as they're sung straight after eachother:
"I kneel and pray
They gave her one more day
To say the words I couldn't say"
So my interpretation is that the girl is already dead, and it's too late for her boyfriend/partner/fiancee to say all the words he wanted to say to her. He prays that he had just one more day to tell her how much he loved her, how much she meant to him. But that's just the way I've listened to it, and everyone takes a similar general meaning out of this song, which is mourning the loss of a loved one, something we can all relate to.
It's an awesome song, and has helped me deal with losing someone recently. -
My interpretation of this song is as such:
Recently the young man personified in the song has suffered the death of his fiancée. The entire song is almost reminiscent. Both the good times, ('Past the diner where we'd meet', 'I held your hand when We took shelter from the rain She laughed as we picked out Our children's names'), and then the jarring, more recent bad period ('My heart just stopped when I was told Doctor, doctor, on the phone Said my love was never coming home').
When they told him she had one day to live, he couldn't face the fact that she was dying. ('They gave her one more day To say the words I couldn't say')
The song sets place on the day of the funeral, considering the fact that it is present tense in the verse 'I hold your casket gently Walking to the grave Dark clouds eclipse The sun won't shine again'.
To put it quite basically, this song is about the loss of a loved one, and the pain the person experiencing the loss goes through. -
I see it as a song about losing a significant
other, in this case a Girlfriend, to a tragic event, and coping with it. Secondly, It may also be seen as a representation of youth's
Dieng (Bad spelling bah!), by the negative choices that they took, eventually leading to their demise. The first Intrp. Is mine, the second a friends. So, If you guys think the second is wrong, dont flame at me. -
It's about girl who gets into an accident and has only one more day to live. Her boyfriend/husband comes to the hospital to say goodbye to her, but he can't. It's about dealing with the pain of losing a loved one.
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