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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCD chapter.

Time and time again, music has proven its power to heal. Song lyrics are essentially just poems with a melody, and nothing is more thought provoking than a well-written poem. That’s why I decided to compile the most thought provoking, hauntingly beautiful song lyrics I have ever heard into this list. The rules are easy: if I have to sit back and stop breathing for a minute after hearing a lyric, it will make this list! This is a non-exhaustive list, though: there’s not enough room to go over every lyric I’ve ever swooned or agonized over. So for now, here’s my top ten! 

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Photo by Mohammad Metri from Unsplash
  1. “Time cast a spell on you, but you won’t forget me / I know I could have loved you, but you would not let me / I’ll follow you down ‘til the sound of my voice will haunt you.” —Fleetwood Mac, “Silver Springs” 
  2. “I look at you all / See the love there that’s sleeping / While my guitar gently weeps.” —The Beatles, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” 
  3. “And they all lived happily ever after…/ there’s nothing like that / I don’t want obvious happiness / So I won’t stop my time / Even if it hurts, I want to grow / I get a little bit lonely” 

— Kiss of Life (Translated), “Bye My Neverland” 

  1. “Each day, you’d rise with me / Know that I would gladly be / The Icarus of your certainty / Oh my sunlight, sunlight, sunlight / Strap the wing to me / Death-trap clad happily / With wax melted, I’d meet the sea / Under sunlight, sunlight, sunlight” 

— Hozier, “Sunlight” 

  1.  “‘There’s a light at the end of this tunnel’ you shout / Cuz you’re just as far in as you’ll ever be out” 

            —Anna Nalick “Breathe (2am)” 

  1. “He asks not if but when / Blah, blah, something meaningful / I don’t weave the thread / just run my hands along it. / But if I did, then Hell / I’d spar with death to skip your name”

—Ethel Cain, “Lead Poisoning” 

  1. “You are the night-time fear / You are the morning when it’s clear / When it’s over, you’re the start / You’re my head, you’re my heart” 

—Florence and the Machine, “No Light, No Light”  

  1. “I lost myself when I lost you / But I’ve still got jazz when I’ve got the blues / and I lost myself when I lost you / And I still get trashed, baby, when I hear your tunes” 

—Lana del Rey, “Terrence Loves You” 

  1. “You’re the only one who saw my yesterday / The only one who knows I’m here, alive today / Comfort me, say what I mean to you / You should know what you have to say” 

—Yerin Baek, “Square” 

  1. “Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming / Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights / Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming / The goddess of imaginary light” 

—Evanescence, “Imaginary” 

Book of Music in Leaves
Photo by ulleo from Pixabay

Again, this is only ten songs out of the millions that have ever existed. I’m a music connoisseur, but even I haven’t heard every lyric. Not to mention, there’s definitely a lot of songs that aren’t in English that I haven’t considered! With that being said, what’s your favorite song lyric?

A fourth year English undergrad with enough bursts of sporadic, random knowledge to write intriguing articles! Self-published author of "Decima Unwritten," a short story depicting young lovers in Pompeii before the eruption, under the nom de plume NJ Standley. Frequent poetry and song writer, as well as beginning music producer. You can find me on YouTube (and probably every other social media ever). Born in the Valley, on a Navy base in Lemoore, CA. However, I have since moved over a dozen times, throughout CA, OR, MD, and CT. Most of middle and high school was spent in Sonoma, California, though my family recently relocated to Santa Rosa. Go bay area! I would love to travel outside of the United States, as well, and I am (slowly) learning Japanese and Greek! I am obsessed with food, wellness, literature, music, dance, cats...and it would be easier to list what I am not obsessed with, so I will stop there! Frequent visitor of Trader Joes, Kpop enthusiast, and kitten mom to my beautiful three-month old Calico, Mochi. Beginning to dabble in astrology. (If that strikes your fancy: I am a Sagittarius, Mochi is a Cancer). INFJ. I’m super bubbly, but also incredibly introverted. As Lana del Rey would say, “I contain multitudes.” Huzzah.