Song Meaning
The lyrics paint a dramatic, almost apocalyptic scene as the day ends. A "crimson crown" of clouds sits atop "mountains high," while the sun descends into a "stormy sky." This powerful, unsettling natural imagery sets a tone of impending intensity, mirroring the emotional weight of the moment described next. The grandeur of the setting contrasts sharply with the intimate, charged interaction between two people.
The core tension arises from a deeply felt, perhaps forbidden, connection. The narrator questions why the other person looked at them with such intensity, "hold[ing] your breath between." This pause, this suspended moment, suggests a profound, unspoken significance. It's a look that carries the weight of ages, implying a connection that transcends ordinary time and circumstance.
The most striking craft element is the assertion that this moment, however brief or unexpressed, is eternally significant. The line, "In all the ages this can never be / As if it had not been," elevates a fleeting glance into something indelible. The narrator insists that the impact of this shared look is so profound it cannot be erased, even by the vastness of time. This elevates a simple interaction into a fated, unchangeable event.
This lyric's power lies in its ability to capture the overwhelming feeling of a singular, charged moment. The dramatic natural backdrop amplifies the internal emotional stakes. By framing a glance as an event that defies time, the writing makes the listener feel the immense, almost cosmic importance of that shared breath and look, by extension, the profound impact of human connection.