In A Week by Hozier Lyrics Meaning – The Poetics of Mortality and Love
Lyrics
Like the damp grass that yields to me
I have never known hunger
Like these insects that feast on me
A thousand teeth
And yours among them, I know
Our hungers appeased
Our heartbeats becoming slow
We lay here for years or for hours
Thrown here or found
To freeze or to thaw
So long we become the flowers
Two corpses we were
Two corpses I saw
And they’d find us in a week
When the weather gets hot
After the insects have made their claim
I’d be home with you
I’d be home with you
I have never known sleep
Like the slumber that creeps to me
I have never known color
Like this morning reveals to me
And you haven’t moved an inch
Such that I would not know
If you sleep always like this
The flesh calmly going cold
We lay here for years or for hours
Your hand in my hand
So still and discreet
So long we become the flowers
We’d feed well the land
And worry the sheep
And they’d find us in a week
When the cattle show fear
After the insects have made their claim
After the foxes have known our taste
I’d be home with you
I’d be home with you
They’d find us in a week (Lay here for years or for hours)
When the weather gets hot (So long we become the flowers)
They’d find us in a week (Lay here for years or for hours)
When the cattle shows fear (So long we become the flowers)
And they’d find us in a week
When the buzzards get loud
After the insects have made their claim
After the foxes have known our taste
After the raven has had its say
I’d be home with you
I’d be home with you
I’d be home with you
I’d be home with you
I’d be home with you
I’d be home with you
Within the soulful breaths of Hozier’s ‘In A Week’, lies a haunting ballad that elegantly entwines romance with the macabre. Far from your typical love song, ‘In A Week’ takes listeners on a poetic journey through the landscape of death and the cycle of life, challenging the nature of beauty in the heartbeats and the hush between. What some may see as a mournful dirge to forgotten lives, others may find to be the deepest declaration of love – untethered from the confines of mortality.
This exploration delves into the cavernous depths of ‘In A Week’, unearthing its layered meanings and the sheer potency of its lyricism. Hozier, known for his thematic richness and profound storytelling, has crafted a song that at once reflects the transitory nature of life and the permanence of love. The melody is a sanctuary where the existential and the intimate dance together, leaving the fever of thought in its evocative wake.
The Eternal Embrace: Love Beyond the Veil of Death
Hozier tethers the raw emotion of love not to the physical heartbeat, but to a spiritual continuation. In the song, love does not end with death; it transcends, becoming part of the land, ‘so long we become the flowers.’ It’s a gripping meditation on love’s ability to persist beyond life. The presence of two lovers’ bodies, left to become one with the earth, serves as an acknowledgment that even in death, the bond is not broken but transformed.
‘In A Week’ weaves this transmutation with delicate threads, suggesting that there is beauty in this return to nature, a romantic naturalism that finds love’s ultimate expression in the eternal cycle of life and death. Hozier’s lyrics don’t mourn death; they celebrate the continuation of love within it.
A Landscape Filled with Metaphors: Nature as a Character
The idyllic, albeit unsettling, setting of ‘In A Week’ is as much a character as the lovers themselves. The damp grass, the insatiable insects, the opportunistic foxes – each element paints a picture of both decay and growth. Hozier skillfully uses nature’s processes as metaphors for the internal experiences of his characters. The song reflects on how everything, from emotions to flesh, is reclaimed and repurposed by nature.
This symbiotic relationship with nature illustrates our impermanence and the way love creates its own environment—a separate place that exists outside of time. ‘In A Week’ dwells in the balance of ephemerality and everlasting, asking listeners to contemplate the silent beauty of the process.
Raw Hungers and Simple Truths: The Human Experience Dissected
Through ‘In A Week’, Hozier doesn’t shy away from the primal aspects of human nature – hunger, sleep, cold – and situates them within the tapestry of mortal experience. With stark vulnerability, he conveys the essence of life: a tapestry woven from the most basic needs and desires. The lyric ‘Our hungers appeased, our heartbeats becoming slow,’ isn’t merely about the end of life, but about fulfillment and the quiescence that follows.
By juxtaposing the mundane with the profound, Hozier invites listeners to reassess their daily experiences in the light of life’s finite span. The weighty reality of mortality compels a deeper appreciation of transient sensations and the underrecognized miracles of our existence.
Unearthed Evidence: The Hidden Meaning in ‘In A Week’
For those keen on deciphering Hozier’s lyrical puzzle, ‘In A Week’ may be seen as an allegory for the diminutive attention paid to life’s grandeur. The mention of the lovers being found after a week speaks to how life’s beauty is often overlooked until it’s no longer present. The song seemingly urges us to reflect on life’s fleeting moments, to savor the ephemeral splendors before they dissolve into the memory of the land.
Beneath the literal narrative of two bodies in nature’s embrace, lies an urging for mindfulness and presence. Hozier’s commentary on the human condition is a subtle reminder that life, in its essence, is a week-long wait for recognition – recognition of love, of existence, and of the legacy left in love’s quiet aftermath.
The Undying Echo: Memorable Lines that Haunt and Heal
‘We lay here for years or for hours… So long we become the flowers.’ These lines encapsulate the essence of ‘In A Week’, elegantly distilling its themes into a haunting refrain that resonates far beyond the duration of the song. They speak to not just the literal transformation from flesh to flora, but also to the persistence of love and the elegance of life’s brevity.
It’s in these poetic inflections that Hozier excels, offering listeners lyrics that linger in the consciousness, inviting repeated reflections. Each line serves as a gentle reminder of our own mortality and the legacy of love we hope to leave behind, carving out a space in the listener’s mind that is both somber and serenely beautiful.
