This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
He walked down a busy street
Staring solely at his feet
Clutching pictures of past lovers at his side
Stood at the table where she sat
And removed his hat
In respect of her presence
Presents her with the pictures and says
"These are just ghosts that broke my heart before I met you.
These are just ghosts that broke my heart before I met you"
Opened up his little heart
Unlocked the lock that kept it dark
And read a written warning
Saying I'm still mourning
Over ghosts
Over ghosts
Over ghosts
Over ghosts that broke my heart before I met you
Lover, please do not
Fall to your knees
It's not
Like I believe in
Everlasting love
He went crazy at nineteen
Said he'd lost all his self esteem
And couldn't understand why he was cry, cry, crying, crying.
He would stare at empty chairs
Think of the ghosts that once sat there
The ghosts who broke his heart.
All the ghosts that broke my heart
The ghosts that broke his heart
All the ghosts that broke my heart
The ghosts, the ghosts, the ghosts, the ghosts,
The ghosts, the ghosts
The ghosts that broke my heart before I met you
Lover, please do not
Fall to your knees
It's not
Like I believe in
Everlasting love
He says "I'm so lost,
Not at all well"
Do as though there is nothing left to be
Turned out I'd been following him and he'd been following me
Do as though after it was over
We were just two lovers crying on each others shoulders
And I said
Lover, please do not
Fall to your knees
It's not
Like I believe in
Everlasting love
Lover, please do not
Fall to your knees
It's not
Like I believe in
Everlasting love
Staring solely at his feet
Clutching pictures of past lovers at his side
Stood at the table where she sat
And removed his hat
In respect of her presence
Presents her with the pictures and says
"These are just ghosts that broke my heart before I met you.
These are just ghosts that broke my heart before I met you"
Opened up his little heart
Unlocked the lock that kept it dark
And read a written warning
Saying I'm still mourning
Over ghosts
Over ghosts
Over ghosts
Over ghosts that broke my heart before I met you
Lover, please do not
Fall to your knees
It's not
Like I believe in
Everlasting love
He went crazy at nineteen
Said he'd lost all his self esteem
And couldn't understand why he was cry, cry, crying, crying.
He would stare at empty chairs
Think of the ghosts that once sat there
The ghosts who broke his heart.
All the ghosts that broke my heart
The ghosts that broke his heart
All the ghosts that broke my heart
The ghosts, the ghosts, the ghosts, the ghosts,
The ghosts, the ghosts
The ghosts that broke my heart before I met you
Lover, please do not
Fall to your knees
It's not
Like I believe in
Everlasting love
He says "I'm so lost,
Not at all well"
Do as though there is nothing left to be
Turned out I'd been following him and he'd been following me
Do as though after it was over
We were just two lovers crying on each others shoulders
And I said
Lover, please do not
Fall to your knees
It's not
Like I believe in
Everlasting love
Lover, please do not
Fall to your knees
It's not
Like I believe in
Everlasting love
Lyrics submitted by whatnikkidid
Ghosts Lyrics as written by Gabrielle Aplin
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I always sort of saw it as the verses being from the mans point of view, and i think he is just telling his lover how he has been hurt before, maybe kinda warning her that his relationships dont last, and then in the chorus its sort of her telling him its alright. I think the guy is over his past lovers, but they have scarred him, he is hesitent to enter this new relationship, and the women, is like relax, its not like i believe in everlasting love so lets just see how it goes?
the first marling song i was aquainted with. i love it, listened to her all day. i could eat this stuff.
im not sure if its right but is 'do as though' actually 'do is done' thats what i hear anyway. its a great song i love it!
It's a guy who's just started in a new relationship and he's explaining how hard he finds it to get over his past lovers. And that it's ok, cos he doesn't believe he'll be in love with the 'ghosts that broke my (his) heart' forever. But at the moment he can't really get his head around it. And it turns out that that the girl is feeling the same as him. so they were crying on each others shoulders over past lovers etc.etc. yeah.
Guy has had relationships which ended, meets new girl. She's like, don't think too much of me (I'm interpreting "fall to your knees" in the thankful/worshipy/in awe sense) because this relationship will end too. C'est la vie, get over it.
It's probably got a much nicer message than that, but meh.
Personally, I feel like the whole song is about the line "It's not like I believe in everlasting love"
I think a story is used to describe how people fall in and out of love. It's sad, kind of like... wishing that there could be everlasting love, rather than just broken promises and broken hearts?
The story seems to tell of how two people want to believe in everlasting love, but know better due to the "the ghosts that broke my heart before I met you." The emotions described are part of the story, the result of having their hearts broken.
The lines "He went crazy at nineteen, Said he’d lost all his self esteem" perhaps is despair at having lost the belief in everlasting love, but still wanting to hold onto it. The next line "And couldn’t understand why he was crying" implies almost a childish longing for what he once believed in and yet he's grown up, why is he crying?
The story then seems to tell of how perhaps it was fate that made them meet, so they could mourn together for their loss of belief in everlasting love, knowing that, although they are together, they will not always be as love does not last forever.
Spot on. I was reading through them because i felt i was missing some points and you've nailed it and ill read no more passed this one. thanks and wonderful. ill probably read it a few moer times before i depart.
I think it's about a guy who falls in love really easily and is a real romantic and he has been hurt by ghosts (plural) not just a ghost, which i think is the whole point why she then says.. it's not like i believe in everlasting love. i think she is saying.. don't cry to me about your past lovers and beg me not to do the same because it's not like their relationship is going to last forever.. but at the same time she feels for him
This song was written by Laura Marling ..not by who is currently listed
It's a very cute song! I love it :)
i love this song, been listening to it on repeat since i heard it the other day.