"Silver Lining" Analysis

Take this silver lining
Keep it in your own sweet head
Shine it when the night is burning red
Shine it in the twilight
Shine it on the cold cold ground
Shine it till these walls come
Tumbling down

We were born with our eyes wide open
So alive with wild hope
Now can you tell me why
Time after time
They drag you down
Down in the darkness deep
Fools in their madness all around
Know that the light don't sleep

Step into the silence
Take it in your own two hands
And scatter it like diamonds
All across these lands
Blaze it in the morning
Wear it like an iron skin
Only things worth living for
Innocence and magic-amen

We were born with our eyes wide open
So alive with wild hope
Now can you tell me why
Time after time
They drag you down
Down in the darkness deep
Fools in their madness all around
Know that the light don't sleep

We were born with our eyes wide open
So alive with wild hope
Now can you tell me why
Time after time
They drag you down
Down with talk so cheap

Fools in their madness all around
-Know that the light don't sleep
-Know that the light don't sleep
Time after time
They drag you down
Down in the darkness deep
Fools in their madness all around
-Know that the light don't sleep
-Know that the light don't sleep

David Gray is a rock/pop artist with the ability to write catchy, yet profound songs. His song "Silver Lining" revolves around the importance of innocence and the inevitable cynicism that clouds our minds as we grow older. The first verse of the song tells us to keep our silver lining--which, in this case, is a metaphor for innocence--and use it when life gets hard ("when the night is burning red", "on the cold, cold ground"). The singer encourages us to use pure bliss and ignorance to help us when we are feeling trapped: "Shine it till these walls come tumbling down". The second verse is similar, using silence as a metaphor for the preservation of wonder and hope. A simile is used: "scatter it like diamonds", as well as imagery. Diamonds symbolize wealth and happiness; the singer is telling us to spread the silence around the world.

In the chorus, the singer talks about the hope we are all born with: "We were born with our eyes wide open; So alive with wild hope". The following lines refer to the tearing down of these hopes, which happens as we learn and experience more in life. Limits are created that did not exist before, and our innocence is lost: "Time after time they drag you down; Down in the darkness deep". The line "know that the light don't sleep" implies that no matter how much it seems to be forced out of us, the innocence we are born with will always live inside us.