This Is Love

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a picture of someone caught in a state of prolonged anticipation, questioning the duration of their wait for another person. The repeated phrase, "How long can I wait for you?" hammers home a sense of weary patience and perhaps a growing doubt. This persistent questioning creates an immediate emotional texture of longing and uncertainty, underscored by the simple, almost defiant declaration, "This is love." The central tension arises from the contrast between the narrator's apparent commitment to waiting and the emotional toll that wait is taking. The act of "trying hard to remember" suggests a fading memory of a time before this waiting, or perhaps a struggle to recall the initial reasons for such devotion. The repetition of the question, punctuated by the brief interjections of "Hold on," feels like a desperate plea, both to the absent person and to themselves, to maintain hope. The most striking aspect of the craft here is the sheer, unyielding repetition. The question "How long can I wait for you?" isn't just a lyric; it's the entire emotional landscape. It functions as a mantra, a prayer, and a complaint all at once. This relentless structure forces the listener to feel the weight of the narrator's extended patience, making the eventual, almost resigned, assertion "This is love" carry a heavy, complex emotional charge, implying that enduring such a wait is, in itself, the definition of love for the narrator.