This is not the end
This is not the beginning
Just a voice like a riot
Rocking every revision
But you listen to the tone
And the violent rhythm
And though the words sound steady
Something empty's within 'em

We say, "yeah"
With fists flying up in the air
Like we're holding onto something
That's invisible there
'Cause we're living at the mercy of
The pain and the fear
Until we dead it, forget it
Let it all disappear

Waiting for the end to come
Wishing I had strength to stand
This is not what I had planned
It's out of my control

Flying at the speed of light
Thoughts were spinning in my head
So many things were left unsaid
It's hard to let you go

I know what it takes to move on
I know how it feels to lie
All I wanna do
Is trade this life for something new
Holding on to what I haven't got

Sitting in an empty room
Trying to forget the past
This was never meant to last
I wish it wasn't so

I know what it takes to move on
I know how it feels to lie
All I wanna do
Is trade this life for something new
Holding on to what I haven't got

Yeah, yeah
What was left when that fire was gone?
I thought it felt right but that right was wrong
All caught up in the eye of the storm
Tryna figure out what it's like moving on
And I don't even know what kind of things I've said
My mouth kept moving and my mind went dead
So, picking up the pieces, now where to begin?
The hardest part of ending is starting again

All I wanna do
Is trade this life for something new
Holding on to what I haven't got

This is not the end
This is not the beginning
Just a voice like a riot
Rocking every revision (I'm holding on to what I haven't got)
But you listen to the tone
And the violent rhythm
And though the words sound steady
Something empty's within 'em

We say, "yeah"
With fists flying up in the air
Like we're holding onto something
That's invisible there
'Cause we're living at the mercy of (holding on to what I haven't got)
The pain and the fear
Until we dead it, forget it
Let it all disappear


Lyrics submitted by MusicFREAK20

Waiting for the End Lyrics as written by Chester Charles Bennington Brad Delson

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Waiting For The End song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

80 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +16
    General Comment

    This song perfectly captures that painful moment of denial when a relationship is ending.

    Because "It's hard to let you go," the singer pretends to himself that he's still got the love he used to have, but in fact he's deluding himself, "holding on to what I haven't got."

    "The hardest part of ending is starting again" because the pain of lost love is too heard to bear, the loneliness of an "empty room" makes it worse, the messiness of "so many things. . . left unsaid" makes it even worse, so it feels far less painful just to pretend it's all not happening. . . to delay and delay that moment when "we dead it, forget it, let it all disappear."

    And this song applies to all sorts of relationships, when you've got to say goodbye, but just can't bear it yet. . .

    So powerful, I love this bittersweet truthful song!

    yhtrownuon September 08, 2010   Link
  • +13
    My Interpretation

    This song fits those who have taken their lives or those who are struggling with depression.

    "But you listen to the tone And the violent rhythm And though the words sound steady Something empty's within 'em"

    Many people who struggle with depression put on a brave face, but they feel empty inside with a battle that rages within - one that no one can see.

    "We say Yeah! With fists flying up in the air Like we're holding onto something That's invisible there, 'Cause we're living at the mercy of The pain and the fear"

    Fighting depression is hard and scary and they are holding on to anything they can - even that which no one else can see.

    "Waiting for the end to come Wishing I had strength to stand This is not what I had planned It's out of my control

    Flying at the speed of light Thoughts we're spinning in my head So many things were left unsaid It's hard to let you go"

    These verses make me think of someone with depression who has given up the fight. They don't have the strength to fight on.

    "(Oh) I know what it takes to move on, I know how it feels to lie, All I wanna do Is trade this life for something new Holding on to what I haven't got

    Sitting in an empty room Trying to forget the past This was never meant to last, I wish it wasn't so"

    Those with depression lie often about how they are doing. They are trying to hold on but feel like they don't have anything to hold on to, or they don't have anything to hold on to, but they are trying to hold on.

    "Yeah, yeah What was left when that fire was gone? I thought it felt right but that right was wrong All caught up in the eye of the storm And trying to figure out what it's like moving on And I don't even know what kind of things I've said My mouth kept moving and my mind went dead So, picking up the pieces, now where to begin? The hardest part of ending is starting again!"

    With depression, the fire is gone and you feel like you are in the eye of the storm. Depression is a liar though. Things can get better, but you do have to start again.

    Cat1216on January 14, 2013   Link
  • +7
    My Interpretation

    i agree with everyones concept on this song. but i think you guys are thinking to small. i read an article about linkin parks new album having references to 2012 and the apocalypic destruction of our planet. "reviewrinserepeat.com/artist/linkin-park/album/a-thousand-suns/review" thats the article there in the quotes. i think this song is talking about the upcomming doomsday as not the end or the beginning. after this destruction we will be living in pain and fear, pain from the great losses we all will experience and fear from fear of the unknown. no one knows what its like to live without our technologies and gizmos and such. we are too attached. "What was left when that fire was gone I thought it felt right but that right was wrong All caught up in the eye of the storm And trying to figure out what it's like moving on" the word fire can easily stand for the destruction. fire is a destructive force. later they mention picking up the pieces, the remnants of the chaos and destruction. needing to find a way to move on from "the end" which is the hardest part. starting our civilization over again.

    lutzy11on November 02, 2010   Link
  • +4
    My Interpretation

    I do in fact agree with all the people that think this song is about love. This song can easily trigger emotions in people (including myself) that have had a difficult love/breakup/unsaid things/friendship/loss which is why I think it is so powerful. This song is beautifully written and of course reading the lyrics does not justify how incredible it sounds when cried out verbally. I think anyone who hears this song and is emotionally touched reverts to one specific moment in time, or to one specific person they failed to keep in their lives whether by their decision or someone else's. This song just brings it out of you! However I think this song truly means that we all hang on to someone we don't mean to, or sometimes even want to hang on to...anymore. But there is nothing we can do about it no matter what we do. They're etched, carved, burned, buried, memorized, their scent sticks to us like glue. And just to keep going with this, my favorite part of the song is "sitting in an empty room trying to forget the past". I get a sense of a double meaning in perhaps his empty room is his mind and not actually a tangible room and of course, "trying to forget the past" is another way of saying "trying to forget the memories". Anyway, as they say, Love is a Mother Fucker. I think this all made sense? I don't know.

    castoniaon November 19, 2010   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    I think this song is about denial. Perhaps over a broken relationship, or a bad grade, or even a death. We (As humans) have a habit of 'holding on to what we haven't got'. This song is about moving on, accepting the truth, and living the rest of your life. But this is hard, as M. Shinoda said, 'the hardest part of ending is starting again.' this is true, and even so, we need to move on, otherwise we may never be the same

    Samuentagaon February 11, 2011   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    I agree with the soldier before he leaves for war thing. But also with the soldier returning from war thing. Or it could be both.

    I can see how it could be about the end of a relationship, too, I'm just not sure that goes with the themes in the rest of the album.

    I LOVE this new album, and I'm pretty sure this is my favorite song on there. It might be a perfectly produced song. It flows so nice, it rolls, and I love the way it wraps you up and brings you with it.

    SusieBon September 14, 2010   Link
  • +3
    Song Meaning

    Guy You are all wrong no offence, I know for a fact this song is about victims of cancer because of what the lyric says especially in the lines "Waiting for the end to come Wishing I had strength to stand This is not what I had planned" and also in the line "Because we're living at the mercy of the pain and the fear Until we dead it, forget it let it all disappear"....and also if you here it on the radio you can hear cancer victims in the background talking about what its like for them...if you think im wrong fine, but i can assure you that this is what the song is about....

    skydiver1224on May 05, 2011   Link
  • +3
    My Interpretation

    What I could get from this song was maybe someone wanting to love another person who is just getting over a bad break up. Like... 'Waiting for the end to come'

    is the person who wants to go out with the person getting over a bad break up, waiting for the other person to get over it.

    'Wishing I had strength to stand This is not what I had planned It's out of my control Flying at the speed of light Thoughts were spinning in my head So many things were left unsaid It's hard to let you go'

    Is the person still trying to get over everything, but still can't.

    'I know what it takes to move on I know how it feels to lie All I want to do Is trade this life for something new Holding on to what I haven't got'

    They are telling the person they know how hard it is to try and get over something like that, and that they know how it feels when you have to lie when you say, 'Yeah, I'm OK.' And they are holding on to what they haven't got when they are trying to love someone who still loves someone else.

    TheFifthElementon May 12, 2011   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    Gotta agree with Samuentaga. This is about letting go of a relationship that never came to fruition. It's about the pain that accompanies the end of a love that never materialized on the part of the other party. At least with death there is finality and one is forced to move on, but with unrequited love there is the hope that must first die before one can let go enough to begin a new life alone. "We're living at the mercy of the pain and the fear" is a GREAT line. It's scary to have to relinquish a dream when you don't know what the future will hold without that person you love. I really love this song and not just because it has personal meaning to me; there's the guitar part 2/3 of the way through (either bass or electic...I am musically inept) that makes me want to fly each and every time it kicks in.

    MaryMaryQuiteContraryon September 09, 2011   Link
  • +3
    My Interpretation

    Absolutely brilliant song from the first lyric to the last.

    The best thing about it is that it can apply to so many situations. It expresses the feelings and emotions behind the end of one phase in life and the inevitable, impending beginning of another.

    You get to the end and realize it was never meant to last forever and it's time to let go because what used to be there is gone now ("Holding onto what I haven't got"). Whether you're ready or not, it's time to move on.

    "Flying at the speed of light Thoughts we're spinning in my head So many things were left unsaid It's hard to let you go"

    Hard to pick only one part of the song, but these words summarize the entire song perfectly. Think about how fast important life events seem to come and go, how difficult it can be to grasp what's happening, to voice your emotions, and ultimately to let go and move forward.

    seve43on August 30, 2012   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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"
Album art
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Album art
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve. The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future. Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere" The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Album art
No Surprises
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.