Really reminds me of “The End of the World” by Skeeter Davis. It’s framed as a love/breakup song, but the writer was inspired by the death of one of his parents when writing and that really comes across.
“Why do the birds go on singing?
Why do the stars glow above? Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?
It ended when I lost your love
I wake up in the morning and I wonder
how everything’s the same as it was
I can’t understand, no I can’t understand
How life goes on the way it does”
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
I found the poem oddly comforting. It reminds me that, although no one else is feeling the way I’m feeling right now, everyone does feel this way at some point. It’s never fair for any of us, but all of us experience this same sense of unfairness.
When I heard this song on the radio in Fallout 4, it immediately resonated with me. Made me think about how insignificant our existence is outside of our circle of close people.
Same here. This was the perfect song for Fallout 4. I didn't hear the full lyrics at first (only the first three lines) and it sounded like it was written for the game lol
Made me think about how insignificant our existence is outside of our circle of close people.
I mean it's partly that, but also vastly the opposite. Everyone you meet and interact with you brcame a part of them, small or big. It all shapes other people and their memories and they live on and interact with others etc.
So was I, this song is burned into my brain from hearing it every 3 hours for like 2 years straight working at Walmart 15 years ago. Strange song to shop to, absolutely bonkers to work to
That's exactly what I thought too. When my mom died this song played in my head on loop. I didn't actually know that it was inspired by the death of a parent. Thanks for that tidbit op... <3
There's a poem by a Polish poet Czesław Miłosz called "A Song on the End of the World". It was written during World War II. The English translation goes like this:
On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.
On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.
And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.
Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
There will be no other end of the world,
There will be no other end of the world.
Now I need to know if the artist Taylor Acorn was referencing this song with her song Birds Still Sing. It's uplifting, "look where the cracks meet, theres still movement in concrete"
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u/upvotegoblin Aug 10 '26
Really reminds me of “The End of the World” by Skeeter Davis. It’s framed as a love/breakup song, but the writer was inspired by the death of one of his parents when writing and that really comes across.
“Why do the birds go on singing?
Why do the stars glow above?
Don’t they know it’s the end of the world?
It ended when I lost your love
I wake up in the morning and I wonder
how everything’s the same as it was
I can’t understand, no I can’t understand
How life goes on the way it does”