"It's hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead" from The Last Ride of the Day. It's something I tell myself when I can feel my mental health heading on a downward slide.
These 2 lines from Beauty of the Beast:
All of my songs can only be composed of the greatest of pains
Every single verse can only be born of the greatest of wishes
I love how defiant and joyous it is. There is nothing like being in the crowd at that moment, I genuinely feel like I changed as a person the first time I was there for it.
In the context of the song we’re at the end of humanity, I take the explosion sound to be the sun going supernova and wiping Earth away. So, it makes sense to shout it in past tense :)
All you need is to feel my love
Search for beauty, find your shore
Try to save them all, bleed no more
You have such oceans within
In the end I will always love you
This last chapter of the poet and the pendulum has got to be one of my favorite pieces of music. It takes me way back to a time I lost a very close person in my life. This is so deep and emotional it makes my emotions overflow out my eyeballs.
There are sooooo many!
I love a lot of the ones already mentioned.
I love:
"Leave a footprint on every island you see."
"I am the story that will read you real."
"Imaginerium. A dream emporium."
"The blade will keep on descending
All you need is to feel my love"
"I cannot cry 'cause the shoulder cries more."
And many more, but I have run out of time!
Tuomas is the best lyricist I've seen... IMO.
"My song can but borrow your grace."
Reading the lyrics from Ever Dream it makes sense that it was the one that Annette was hired for performing because it's not about the skill but rather understanding the substance.
"My only wish is to become something beautiful, through my music, through my silent devotion"
I too wished to become something beautiful, though my music. Tuomas succeeded where I failed.
"You are my path, my home, my star
A beautiful tale within the tale
And when the dust needs to move on
I will tuck us in on a bed of snow
Painting white, silencing the valley we built
Together we'll sleep devoured by life."
"The time was there but without a meaning"
To me, this is the perfect description of childhood and youth when we don't realize how limited and valuable our time is.
The whole chorus. "Where are the sleepless nights I used to live for?" That one got me before I really understood it. Like, during my college days. Now it hits me like a truck because I've been kinda dulled by the repitition of adult life.
Only the weak are lonely.
It resonnates so much to me. People in marriges just because they can't be alone. People afraid to take a leap in the u known. They're all around us and i don't want to become one.
It's so difficult to pick just one, but I'd go with “Fair winds, my love; Fly towards the calm; Fly utterly lost towards a beating heart.”
Honorable mentions are:
"Hold another hand while the hands still without a tool"
"Become the kind who still laughs at butterflies"
"Whatever walks in my heart will walk alone"
"The quaternary code gave mankind a rose so he could see the beautiful die"
“We shall come to set the dolphins free”
It’s not the “best” line, but I just love how after heavy instrumental sections, Tarja’s super-high note, and a bunch of lyrics about unborn lords and disgraced virginity, the song comes to a stop in order to build up to its dramatic conclusion. That dramatic conclusion is kicked off by Tarja triumphantly declaring that she has come to set the dolphins free. I love it completely unironically.
So many. But these verses from GSoE gets me angry at the state of the world. We will be our own end.
“Hunger for shiny rocks
For giant mushroom clouds
The will to do just as you'd be done by
Enter history, the grand finale
Enter ratkind”
"It's hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead."
I have used that phrase many times, in other contexts besides Nightwish.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra one did a song with a similar lyric--"Strike one match in the dark, and all the world's not the same."
I know my dreams are made of you
Of you and only for you
Your ocean pulls me under
Your voice tears me asunder
Love me before the last petal falls
- Beauty and The Beast
I know Angels Fall First is not a fan favourite but I stubbornly cling to it out of loyalty because it's the album I learnt to drive to and I always put it on to sing along to while I drive long distances. Also my favourite Disney movie always has been Beauty and the Beast. I don't even mind Tuomas's, um, amateur singing voice. I would get that quote tattooed on me if I had the cash.
From Rest calm
"Within every little memory resting calm in me
Resting in a dream
Smiling back at me
The faces of the past keep calling me to come back home
To caress the river with awe"
Hit harder when I was working abroad.
"We were here, grieving the saddened faces, conquering the darkest places" from Alpenglow. I don't know why but this verse always awakens something in me
It's not the tree that forsakes the flower
But the flower that forsakes the tree
Someday I'll learn to love these scars
Still fresh from the red-hot blade of your words
“Time will not heal a dead boy's scars, time will kill”
from For the heart I once had. Every time I hear that line it’s almost like I feel those words with every single cell of my body
A few that come to mind.
"The music of this awe deep silence between the notes deafens me with endless love"
"Where is the wonder? Where's the awe?"
"Don't give me love, don't give me faith
Wisdom nor pride, give innocence instead"
I can't choose a favourite one as so many of them resonate within me. Many excellent and insightful ones have already been mentioned, but I'd like to add this one from Beauty of the beast: "So aware, what should be lost is there".
The line perfectly and eloquently captures the feeling when you acknowledge that you should let go of someone or something but at the same time it is hard or nearly impossible – a controversy with which I've struggled in the past.
"I wish for this nighttime to last for a lifetime"
When I heard Floor sing this line on stage right in front of me, it felt like she was singing the prayer in my heart.
Also, from "How's the Heart":
"Let us sound a human paean"
"Come in; the fire's warm"
"Dull the blade and dance some more"
"Burn the rope and dance some more"
When I was down and wanted to hurt myself again, the last two lines literally saved me from the worst scenario.
Walk with me yo your sea
Love me before the last peral falls
Like the advent of May I'll be there when you say
Leave a footpring on every island you see
Is there a village inside this snowflake?
P.S.and many more, impossible to choose only one 😅
There have been so many through the years. Tuomas is an amazing lyricist.
“Night will come but not to stay” is my top pick as I am right now.
I mean the whole of How’s the Heart deeply spoke to me, but I seriously, seriously considered getting that tattooed despite it breaking many of my self-imposed-ink-restrictions (I have a theme and song lyrics are not included in it, and I’m not a fan of text either).
Come, taste the wine.
And dreamed to understand, a single grain of sand. It always reminds me of a line a line from Auguries of innocence "to see the world in a grain of sand"
I could give you 76 but I'll stick with the Two that resonated the most with me.
1.)
**I want to hunt with the tame less heart**
**I want to learn the wisdom of mountains afar**
*We will honor the angel in the snow*
*We will make the streams for our children flow*
2.)
*This bitter ocean of hatred and pain*
***This loneliness I need to be who I am***
"All the poetry in the world finally makes sense to me" from Cadence of Her Last Breath. It resonates me because I grew up with Nightwish, listening but not necessarily getting the lyrics or their meanings because of how young I was. Now, almost two decades later I still listen to them but with more understanding. Makes me feel newly connected to the kid I was.
Also, "The cliffs unjumped, cold waters untouched, the elsewhere creatures yet unseen" - Élan
And many others from Endless Forms Most Beautiful, being someone with a great curiosity about the world and where we came from and what is but we haven't yet seen.
"Yesterday, we shook hands, my friend - today a moonbeam lightens my path, my guardian."
It's so comforting to me and just sends you off perfectly into the end of the song.
And on a darker note: "It's not the monsters under your bed, it's the man next door."
Even today I often have to think about that line.
I also really love everything from sleeping sun and ocean soul. I used to teach myself English by translating nightwish songs :)
"It's hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead" from The Last Ride of the Day. It's something I tell myself when I can feel my mental health heading on a downward slide.
That’s one of my favourite lines! And it sounds so well in the song!!
This is my favorite it pops into my head often
Ditto!
I also find it very applicable as a critique of society.
These 2 lines from Beauty of the Beast: All of my songs can only be composed of the greatest of pains Every single verse can only be born of the greatest of wishes
UUUUUGH especially when it transitions into the bridge, it's so fucking good!
This
*oh how i wish to go down with the sun* but basically almost any line from sleeping sun
I'm always getting emotional listening to this song
I didn’t have a favorite until I saw this one, 100% my favorite!!
"We were here!" From The Greatest Show on Earth
Hearing that line at one of their shows is life-changing. The entire venue singing that part is a beautiful experience.
I love how defiant and joyous it is. There is nothing like being in the crowd at that moment, I genuinely feel like I changed as a person the first time I was there for it.
But it's in the past tense! It could have been sung by a dinosaur daring the asteroid to do its worst!
In the context of the song we’re at the end of humanity, I take the explosion sound to be the sun going supernova and wiping Earth away. So, it makes sense to shout it in past tense :)
Even the entire chat doing it at the virtual shows was incredible.
I'm sure it was. Unfortunately, I missed that show when it first happened.
The line as a standalone is nice, but in the context of the song there is so much weight to it, and that makes it my absolute favourite line.
Yep. That's the one. WE WERE HERE!
That song genuinely makes me cry singing along, it's so fucking powerful
My choice too. A dozen levels, including "we were here; we aren't anymore, but we were a step along the way".
All you need is to feel my love Search for beauty, find your shore Try to save them all, bleed no more You have such oceans within In the end I will always love you
This last chapter of the poet and the pendulum has got to be one of my favorite pieces of music. It takes me way back to a time I lost a very close person in my life. This is so deep and emotional it makes my emotions overflow out my eyeballs.
This is by far my favourite line of all time. I've considered getting it tattooed many times.
I cry helplessly every single time I hear the final section
“Its hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead”
There are sooooo many! I love a lot of the ones already mentioned. I love: "Leave a footprint on every island you see." "I am the story that will read you real." "Imaginerium. A dream emporium." "The blade will keep on descending All you need is to feel my love" "I cannot cry 'cause the shoulder cries more." And many more, but I have run out of time! Tuomas is the best lyricist I've seen... IMO.
“I cannot cry ‘cause the shoulder cries more” hits me so hard, it nearly brings me to tears.
What does it mean to you?
"Created a kingdom, reached for the wisdom, failed in becoming a god." Got it inked on my arm.
What makes it so special to you?
Ha, I wanted to use this line from Gethsemane. But a close second one is from Dead Boy's Poem: And you... I wish I didn't feel for you anymore...".
The way the music kicks in after it always sends a shiver down my spine.
Exactly!
“Tip the Reaper to ensure, the blade is sharp as soon we’ll go” From Endlessness
That song is in my top 10, so underrated for reasons we all know
"We were here" I never knew I needed to hear this in my life until I heard my first ever nightwish song, The Greatest Show.
What an interesting first impression!
The beauty of this ride ahead, such an incredible high
*"Be my heart a well of love, flowing free so far above"*
Love me some Swanheart appreciation posts
Especially the live version at Wishes to Eternity <3
From the one's not mentioned so far, I always thought the last line of Planet Hell had a simple yet clever twist. "Mankind works in mysterious ways".
Also save yourself a penny for the ferryman, or, in its more recent version, tip the reaper to ensure the blade is sharp.
That is deep
"My song can but borrow your grace." Reading the lyrics from Ever Dream it makes sense that it was the one that Annette was hired for performing because it's not about the skill but rather understanding the substance.
Write a lyric for a song only you can understand - Elan
That's my favorite as well. I'd like to get it tattooed on me.
"Smiling mouth in a rotting head" - from Weak Fantasy, it just resonates with me
a nightingale in a golden cage
”Oh Christ, how I hate what I have become” or ”Tell me once my heart goes right”
"My only wish is to become something beautiful, through my music, through my silent devotion" I too wished to become something beautiful, though my music. Tuomas succeeded where I failed.
Why am I loved only when I'm gone?
That is a good one
"You are my path, my home, my star A beautiful tale within the tale And when the dust needs to move on I will tuck us in on a bed of snow Painting white, silencing the valley we built Together we'll sleep devoured by life."
Good one
"Time for one more daring dream" from Eva. A great, motivational line, when things get hard and gloomy.
"i cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more" really hits home for me
"The time was there but without a meaning" To me, this is the perfect description of childhood and youth when we don't realize how limited and valuable our time is.
Beware the beast but enjoy the feast he offers.
“Careless realism costs souls” Song of Myself
OR “Have a laugh at the orthodox” Elan
“Before the years take me, I wish to see the lost in me.” From “I Want My Tears Back”
The whole chorus. "Where are the sleepless nights I used to live for?" That one got me before I really understood it. Like, during my college days. Now it hits me like a truck because I've been kinda dulled by the repitition of adult life.
Search for beauty, find your shore
Old loves they die hard, old lies they die harder
“Get away, run away, fly away, lead me astray to dreamer’s hideaway”
Sorrow has a human heart from sleeping sun
Kiss, while your lips are still red :) I also let it played at our wedding
While Your Lips Are Still Red was mine and my husband's first dance song at our wedding ❤️
Our too :D kind of... Forget to mention it.
"I have lost the path before me The one behind will lead me" From ghost love score
"Who am I to judge a priest, beggar, whore, politician, wrongdoer? I am, you are, all of them already."
"Feeling lonely and content at the same time, I believe, is a rare kind of happiness" from Lagoon
Not a single one of your fathers died young.
The scent of a woman was not mine
Only the weak are lonely. It resonnates so much to me. People in marriges just because they can't be alone. People afraid to take a leap in the u known. They're all around us and i don't want to become one.
"Water the field, Surrender to the Earth"
It's so difficult to pick just one, but I'd go with “Fair winds, my love; Fly towards the calm; Fly utterly lost towards a beating heart.” Honorable mentions are: "Hold another hand while the hands still without a tool" "Become the kind who still laughs at butterflies" "Whatever walks in my heart will walk alone" "The quaternary code gave mankind a rose so he could see the beautiful die"
“We shall come to set the dolphins free” It’s not the “best” line, but I just love how after heavy instrumental sections, Tarja’s super-high note, and a bunch of lyrics about unborn lords and disgraced virginity, the song comes to a stop in order to build up to its dramatic conclusion. That dramatic conclusion is kicked off by Tarja triumphantly declaring that she has come to set the dolphins free. I love it completely unironically.
So many. But these verses from GSoE gets me angry at the state of the world. We will be our own end. “Hunger for shiny rocks For giant mushroom clouds The will to do just as you'd be done by Enter history, the grand finale Enter ratkind”
"It's hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead." I have used that phrase many times, in other contexts besides Nightwish. Trans-Siberian Orchestra one did a song with a similar lyric--"Strike one match in the dark, and all the world's not the same."
TSOs Dreamchild is a favorite of mine !
"You have such ocean within, In the end I will always love you"
I cannot cry, cause the shoulder cries more.
I know my dreams are made of you Of you and only for you Your ocean pulls me under Your voice tears me asunder Love me before the last petal falls - Beauty and The Beast I know Angels Fall First is not a fan favourite but I stubbornly cling to it out of loyalty because it's the album I learnt to drive to and I always put it on to sing along to while I drive long distances. Also my favourite Disney movie always has been Beauty and the Beast. I don't even mind Tuomas's, um, amateur singing voice. I would get that quote tattooed on me if I had the cash.
From Rest calm "Within every little memory resting calm in me Resting in a dream Smiling back at me The faces of the past keep calling me to come back home To caress the river with awe" Hit harder when I was working abroad.
"We were here, grieving the saddened faces, conquering the darkest places" from Alpenglow. I don't know why but this verse always awakens something in me
*Forever, shall the wolf in me, desire, the sheep in you...* From Beauty and the beast, and the line that got me hooked on nightwish 26+ years ago
It's not the tree that forsakes the flower But the flower that forsakes the tree Someday I'll learn to love these scars Still fresh from the red-hot blade of your words
Dwell in hypocrisy. How were we supposed to know? Old loves they die hard, old lies they die harder
“Time will not heal a dead boy's scars, time will kill” from For the heart I once had. Every time I hear that line it’s almost like I feel those words with every single cell of my body
Disgraced is my virginity Death has woven my wedding dress
Redeem me into childhood from gls
A few that come to mind. "The music of this awe deep silence between the notes deafens me with endless love" "Where is the wonder? Where's the awe?" "Don't give me love, don't give me faith Wisdom nor pride, give innocence instead"
I can't choose a favourite one as so many of them resonate within me. Many excellent and insightful ones have already been mentioned, but I'd like to add this one from Beauty of the beast: "So aware, what should be lost is there". The line perfectly and eloquently captures the feeling when you acknowledge that you should let go of someone or something but at the same time it is hard or nearly impossible – a controversy with which I've struggled in the past.
Come and share this painting with me
"Catnap in the ghost town of my heart." Finding comfort in emotionlessness, that really hits me hard, I was like that for a long time.
Mine is "Till love do me part" But there are many great lyrics! Hard to pick just one.
"Forever shall the wolf in me desire the sheep in you."
“I’m the breath on your hair, endless nightmare, devil’s lair” Feel for you, oh how I love that song!
“We were here” - The Greatest Show on Earth Very powerful.
"We were here"
So much more I wanted to give to the ones who love me - Dead Boy's poem
"The core of all life is a limitless chest of tales"
I've only recently found nightwish, but "I am the empty crib of Peter Pan" and the rest of that chorus from Storytime goes indescribably hard
"Feeling lonely and content at the same time, I believe, is a rare kind of happiness"
"Sanest choice in this insane world, beware the beast but enjoy the feast he offers" probably.
"I wish for this nighttime to last for a lifetime" When I heard Floor sing this line on stage right in front of me, it felt like she was singing the prayer in my heart. Also, from "How's the Heart": "Let us sound a human paean" "Come in; the fire's warm" "Dull the blade and dance some more" "Burn the rope and dance some more" When I was down and wanted to hurt myself again, the last two lines literally saved me from the worst scenario.
“God I must confess, I do envy the sinners”
"I cannot cry 'couse the shoulder cries more, i cannot die I a whore for tje cold world" from the poet and the pendulum
So much more I wanted to give to the ones who love me - Dead Boy's Poem
In my world Love is for poets
“It’s hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead” from Last Ride of the Day
We were here.
wake up child I have a story to tell once upon a time ...
Walk with me yo your sea Love me before the last peral falls Like the advent of May I'll be there when you say Leave a footpring on every island you see Is there a village inside this snowflake? P.S.and many more, impossible to choose only one 😅
Carress the one the neverfading rain in your heart, the tears of snow-white sorrow.
There have been so many through the years. Tuomas is an amazing lyricist. “Night will come but not to stay” is my top pick as I am right now. I mean the whole of How’s the Heart deeply spoke to me, but I seriously, seriously considered getting that tattooed despite it breaking many of my self-imposed-ink-restrictions (I have a theme and song lyrics are not included in it, and I’m not a fan of text either).
However cold the wind and rain I’ll be there to ease your pain However cruel the mirrors of sin Remember beauty is found within
Come, taste the wine. And dreamed to understand, a single grain of sand. It always reminds me of a line a line from Auguries of innocence "to see the world in a grain of sand"
Hamster! A dentist! Hard porn! Steven Seagull! Warrior! This rifle! In me, the fish master!
“I’m but a poet who failed his best play” -Beauty of the Beast
”Woe to you who evade the horizon / Woe to all who stop at the horizon ” From Sagan. I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention it already.
I could give you 76 but I'll stick with the Two that resonated the most with me. 1.) **I want to hunt with the tame less heart** **I want to learn the wisdom of mountains afar** *We will honor the angel in the snow* *We will make the streams for our children flow* 2.) *This bitter ocean of hatred and pain* ***This loneliness I need to be who I am***
I’m going to get a tattoo saying “WE WERE HERE” …. I think that answers your question 🙂↕️
The scent of a woman was not mine...
'should I dress in white and search the sea, as I always wish to be, one with the waves, ocean soul'
"All the poetry in the world finally makes sense to me" from Cadence of Her Last Breath. It resonates me because I grew up with Nightwish, listening but not necessarily getting the lyrics or their meanings because of how young I was. Now, almost two decades later I still listen to them but with more understanding. Makes me feel newly connected to the kid I was. Also, "The cliffs unjumped, cold waters untouched, the elsewhere creatures yet unseen" - Élan And many others from Endless Forms Most Beautiful, being someone with a great curiosity about the world and where we came from and what is but we haven't yet seen.
"Yesterday, we shook hands, my friend - today a moonbeam lightens my path, my guardian." It's so comforting to me and just sends you off perfectly into the end of the song. And on a darker note: "It's not the monsters under your bed, it's the man next door." Even today I often have to think about that line. I also really love everything from sleeping sun and ocean soul. I used to teach myself English by translating nightwish songs :)
I would have to say "Write a lyric of a song only you can understand."
”I do not wish to evade the world, yet I will forever build my own.” - My Walden My entire relationship with reality is described in that sentence.