Lately I've been wishing I had one desire
Something that would make me never want another
Something that would make it so that nothing matters
All would be clear then

But I guess I'll have to settle for a for a few brief moments
And watch all dissolve into a single second
And try to write it down into a perfect sonnet
Or one foolish line

Because that's all that you'll get so you'll have to accept
You are here and then you're gone
But I believe that lovers should be tied together and
Thrown into the ocean in the worst of weather

And left there to drown
Left there to drown
In their innocence
But as for me I'm coming to the final chapter

I read all of the pages and there is still no answer
Only all that was before I know must soon come after
That is the only way it can be
So I stand in the sun

And I breathe with my lungs
Trying to spare myself the weight of the truth
Saying everything you have ever seen was just a mirror
And you've spent your whole life sweating in an endless fever

And now you are laying ina bathtum full of freezing water
Wishing you were a ghost
But once you knew a girl and you named her lover
And danced with her in kitchens through the greenest summer

But autumn came, she disappeared
You don't remember where she said she was going to
But you know that she is gone because she left you a song
That you don't want to sing

We're singing I believe that lovers should be chained together
And thrown into a fire with their songs and letters
And left there to burn in their arrogance
But as for me I'm coming to my final failure

I've killed myself with changes trying to make it better
But I still ended up becoming something other than what I had planned to be
Now I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers
And laid entwined together on a bed of clover

And left there to sleep
Left there to dream of their happiness


Lyrics submitted by PLANES, edited by ruttentud

A Perfect Sonnet Lyrics as written by Oberst

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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A Perfect Sonnet song meanings
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  • +5
    My Interpretation

    I personally think this song is about someone who really wants to fall in love but has been unsucessful. So he wants something else that's more attainable that he can control that will make him forget about wanting to fall in love. I think he bitterness and jealousy to people in love is he talkes about tying them together and throwing them in the ocean and then talks about chaining them together and throwing them into the fire left to burn in there arrogance. I think he feels like a outsider looking in. Feels like he's running out time.

    chuck9259on October 28, 2012   Link

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