And after the storm,
I run and run as the rains come
And I look up, I look up,
on my knees and out of luck,
I look up.

Night has always pushed up day
You must know life to see decay
But I won't rot, I won't rot
Not this mind and not this heart,
I won't rot.

And I took you by the hand
And we stood tall,
And remembered our own land,
What we lived for.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

And now I cling to what I knew
I saw exactly what was true
But oh no more.
That's why I hold,
That's why I hold with all I have.
That's why I hold.

And I will die alone and be left there.
Well I guess I'll just go home,
Oh God knows where.
Because death is just so full and man so small.
Well I'm scared of what's behind and what's before.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.



Lyrics submitted by tikilights, edited by kcostell

Track duration: 04:08


After the Storm song meanings
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  • 0
    My Opinion:I think that “After the Storm” is about a man who is at a sort of crossroads in his life. What he has alway done is working no longer. This has brought him to his knees but he is also afraid to move forward in a new direction. He finally reaches his breaking point, stops running and looks upward. He could be looking for hope or to god for answers or both. He struggles to make the leap of faith that is crucial to changing his life for the better. The chorus seems to be a different voice than that of the verses. It is an inner struggle between determination and resignation, hope and despair. It is a statement of hope, of recognizing and facing doubt and fear and coming through them to acceptance and peace. In a place that is figuratively or literally, where there is no more tears shed no matter what comes our way. Whether it’s skeletons in our closet, life, love or even death. We can face them all so long as we are willing to face and over come fear.
    Flag JaredMcon May 03, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song is most definitely about God, and life on earth and life in heaven. The storm represents a life on earth, sometimes full of worry and pain and bad things that we have no control over. He "looks up" to see God, who takes him by the hand and leads him to heaven. A place where love is all there is. There is no pain, no suffering no sadness, just love and happiness in its purest form, the way that it was meant to be.
    Flag iluvpugs3on April 18, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:For me this is about someone who loves his significant other, but knows that it cannot work. Whether its unhealthy, or he know that the other loves someone else, or they just cannot trust the person anymore, etc.

    Verse 1: The storm being the relationship. So after the relationship has come to an end. And the rain falls on him. A sad, but refreshing and cleansing rain. The end of the storm.

    Verse 2: He knows that sometimes with the beauty of love (or life), there is heartbreak and its terrible (the decay). You must know love to feel heartbreak. But he refuses to let the heartbreak rot him.

    Bridge 1: Together he and his partner remembered everything they had been through during the closure of the relationship, before they part ways.

    Chorus: He reminds himself, that he will experience true love again. But he will not have to worry like he has in the past relationship, and one day, a lover will not break his heart and it will be true. "Get over your hill" meaning that he needs to get past the hardest part of the breakup, and it will all be down hill from there.

    Verse 3: He holds on to what he knows and that is that he loved her, and now he sees the truth that they can no longer be together. Yet, no matter who else he dates, he will always love her.

    Bridge 2: The part that he has become during the relationship will die and it will remain where it belongs: with the tombstone of the relationship. He does not know where he will go next, yet, he knows that God has a plan for him. He is afraid of his past and what will happen to him next.
    Flag laurmaringon April 08, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:For me,
    Since this song follows after dust bowl dance, surely it’s related to the dust storm from the dust bowl period. About a guy who refuse to migrate with the others and hoping to do what he’s done all his life (farming).

    1st verse
    After the storms and severe draught, the rain comes but the crops still won’t grow due to damage land due to the extensive plowing.

    2nd verse
    Even after seeing the crops die in front of his eyes, he does not want to lose hope and to continue farming.

    Bridge
    He stays with everybody he loves. They stood still while watching everyone else flees.

    Chorus
    He promises them that better time is just around the corner.

    4th verse
    He knows that it will not happen but he still hoping. Also he does not know to do anything else than farming.

    Last verse
    He will die alone due to his stubbornness and hope that then everybody he loves will eventually leave the land but he is afraid that people who stays because of his decision will also dies.
    Flag DewaMidion February 05, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:For me,
    Since this song follows after dust bowl dance, it’s related to the dust storm from the dust bowl period. About this guy who refuse to migrate with the others and hoping to do what he’s done all his life (farming).

    1st verse
    After the storms and severe draught, the rain comes but the crops still won’t grow due to damage land due to the extensive plowing.

    2nd verse
    Even after seeing the crops die in front of his eyes, he does not want to lose hope and to continue farming.

    Bridge
    He stays and ask everybody he loves to stand by his decision. They watch everyone else flees.

    Chorus
    He promises them that better time is just around the corner.

    4th verse
    He knows that it will not happen but he is still hoping. Also he does not know anything else other than farming.

    Last verse
    He will die alone due to his stubbornness but hope that everybody he loves will eventually leave the land. He is afraid that people who stays will also die.
    Flag DewaMidion February 05, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:This song has a most definite spiritual connotation. If it's not so, the author has a fixation on Christian ideas and/or practices.
    Flag lb8684on January 26, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:For me it's not so much about hope as the loss of hope

    "You must know life to see decay. But I won't rot"

    Why isn't he rotting? Not because he's strong, but because there's no life there left to rot.

    "That's why I hold with all I have"

    What does he hold to? The earlier times, "I cling to what I knew". He's lost now, so all he can do is hold on to the past, the way things were before whatever this is storm is that happened to him.

    All he can do is hold on to the past, wait, and hope that "there will come a time" when whoever he is singing this to comes back to him. But even he knows that it's far more likely that he "will die alone, and be left there".
    Flag kcostellon January 18, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The song is 100% about God.

    "And I look up, I look up,
    on my knees and out of luck,
    I look up."

    (praying, when he is out of luck, he looks up to God)

    "And I took you by the hand
    And we stood tall,
    And remembered our own land,
    What we lived for."

    (found God, and he stood tall and remembered the land God made and that we live because of him)

    And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
    And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
    Get over your hill and see what you find there,
    With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

    (with God in your heart, there will be no need for tears, when you get over the hill and find God with grace in your heart, love won't break your heart it will only dismiss your fears.)
    Flagged mumfordgalon December 17, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:First of all, don't judge me. I listen to this song as I wrote a walking dead fan fiction so this is how I see it:

    There's a group of people taking shelter on a cabin. The groups is very weak and there's a lot of kids and women among them. Zombies start attacking the place and people panick, there's no way they are going to survive.

    Among the group there's this guy. He has always been in love with a girl, but she's in love with some one else. When the attack starts, he goes and tries to confess his love to the girl but he sees him kissing other man.

    "And after the storm,
    I run and run as the rains come
    And I look up, I look up,
    on my knees and out of luck,
    I look up.

    Night has always pushed up day
    You must know life to see decay
    But I won't rot, I won't rot
    Not this mind and not this heart,
    I won't rot."

    He makes the descision to stay behind and save the group. Broken hearted, he takes a gun and comes outside firing, distracting the zombies and giving the group a chance to escape. He has only a few round of ammo and they start running out.

    "And I took you by the hand
    And we stood tall,
    And remembered our own land,
    What we lived for.

    And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
    And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
    Get over your hill and see what you find there,
    With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

    And now I cling to what I knew
    I saw exactly what was true
    But oh no more.
    That's why I hold,
    That's why I hold with all I have.
    That's why I hold."

    He rans out of ammo and tries to fight, but the zombies are just too many. He closes his eyes and starts imagining a life with this girl on a place where the two can be happy together. Finally, he feels happy she's getting a chance to live her life, even if it's not with him.

    "I won't die alone and be left there.
    Well I guess I'll just go home,
    Oh God knows where.
    Because death is just so full and man so small.
    Well I'm scared of what's behind and what's before."

    Finally the creatures start eating him up and he dies. Then I imagine the girl riding in the back of some truck staring at the night through the windshield. she's leaning on other man's arms, but she is thinking about the brave boy that saved them. A tear scapes her eye

    "And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
    And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
    Get over your hill and see what you find there,
    With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair."

    then she whippes it off and leans into the man's arm and drifts off to sleep pacefully.

    "And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
    And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
    Get over your hill and see what you find there,
    With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair."
    Flag Salanderon October 06, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Great song, and very intriguing lyrics!!
    Try the idea that it is about a WW1 soldier, and his comrades in arms. A lot of it works. Although I don't really think that M
    Flag mrphamelon September 17, 2012   Link

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