I don't believe the song is only past tense, I believe it could be present tense. To me, the song is about a boy and girl in a very caring relationship, but the girl is hopelessly in love with him and she clearly knows he doesn't love her, he hasn't reached that understanding yet. To break it down:
"Turn down the lights, turn down the bed, turn down these voices inside my head, lay down with me. Tell me no lies, just hold me close, don't patronize, don't patronize me."
Right here, in the girls aspect, she's saying let's just lay here together, in each others arms. Be completely open and honest with me. The voices in her head are doubt or worry and she is turning them down because she hates the worry of him never loving her or feeling the same way. She just wants to endure him and he to her.
"Cause I can't make you love me if you don't, you can't make your heart feel something it won't. Here in the dark, in these final hours I will lay down my heart and I will feel the power. But you won't, no you won't cause I can't make you love me."
However, she knows no matter what she does she can't force him to love her, and you can't make herself have feelings or love for another, they just are. The part about being in the dark, I feel, in complete and total vulnerability. By laying down her heart, she is completely letting her emotions take over her and let him feel the fullest extent of her love and she will embrace it. However, she knows he won't do the same because he doesn't love her that way and she can't make him.
"I'll close my eyes, then I won't see the love you don't feel when you're holding me. Morning will come and I'll do what's right. Just give me till then to give up this fight and I will give up this fight."
By closing her eyes, it could mean physically closing her eyes or shutting away her intense feelings for the time being. I believe it's physical and she might rest her head on his chest because she doesn't want to see for herself that even though he is holding her so lovingly and warm, he doesn't love her. He cares and adores her but he doesn't love her yet and yet she holds him with everything she has. However, when the next day comes and she wakes up she knows what she has to do. The fight is her feelings battling his own. She knows she has to stop trying to force his love in even the smallest ways. That the only true love is his decision to love her back. She will still love him but knows that the fighting and battling of her emotions and even trying to manipulate his are wrong and untrue.
I don't believe the song is only past tense, I believe it could be present tense. To me, the song is about a boy and girl in a very caring relationship, but the girl is hopelessly in love with him and she clearly knows he doesn't love her, he hasn't reached that understanding yet. To break it down:
"Turn down the lights, turn down the bed, turn down these voices inside my head, lay down with me. Tell me no lies, just hold me close, don't patronize, don't patronize me."
"Cause I can't make you love me if you don't, you can't make your heart feel something it won't. Here in the dark, in these final hours I will lay down my heart and I will feel the power. But you won't, no you won't cause I can't make you love me."
"I'll close my eyes, then I won't see the love you don't feel when you're holding me. Morning will come and I'll do what's right. Just give me till then to give up this fight and I will give up this fight."