So, the narrator will be dead, “you” will be dead, and the narrator after death will be in the earth.

In the narrator’s mind, after death, he will smile and wave from the physical features of the earth. The narrator expects to be returned to the earth and very literally to live on in the very fabric of the earth. This is after the narrator has “given it/death” to “you”. As has been previously identified in this thread, the phrase “earth to earth” provides a partial explanation for the “mouth of the ocean / arms of the mountain” passages.

The phrase “ashes to ashes” goes hand in hand with “earth to earth”. Note that the “resurrection” passage is optional. Having given thanks for the life of our brother N., we now commit his mortal body to the ground/ to be cremated, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died, was buried, and rose again for us. Here is one version of the passage from the service: It is necessary to consider them by reference to the funeral service from which the words “ashes to ashes” come. The second half of the first line of the chorus “then I’ll be closer” does not say to what the narrator will be closer but that becomes clear from the next two lines. This describes a key event in the narrative of the future that the song offers: the narrator is going to kill someone. (It seems strained to give someone a funeral). “It” is not defined but assuming that “it” is the same “it” from the first verse and is also the subject of the song then this line should be read as “Give death to you”, i.e. While the first verse does not hint what “it” is or what the narrator has done wrong, given that the song is about a death it seems likely that “it” means a funeral or a death. Not only that, but to make sure they know about it, he is going (in the future) to point the finger at himself. The narrator is to blame for something “it’s me”, “it’s on my head” and he wants “them” to know about it. Now we can start looking through the song verse by verse. Taking those four general observations, we have a single narrator in a song about a funeral, talking to one other person about what the narrator wants and what is going to happen. It describes only one present fact (“I want them to know it’s me”, describing the narrator’s current desire, but as to a future matter) and one past fact (“I will let you shout no more”, meaning that the “you” has been shouting). Thirdly, it is addressed to “you” and this appears to be a single person (“I’ll pick you up from the floor” it is probably hard to pick up more than one person or God from a floor).įourthly, it is written at a single instant in time and with two exceptions, it is all about what is going to happen in the future (“I’ll”, “I will”). Secondly, it is written from the point of view of a single person narrator (“I want”, “I will”, “I’ll”). It means that this is a song about one or more funerals following one or more deaths. Once you treat “it”, “you” and “I” as having the same meaning throughout, the possible interpretations narrow a lot.īefore examining the words of Ashes to Ashes line by line it is important to identify some general features about it, which inform the understanding of each line.įirst, the title “Ashes to Ashes” comes from the Funeral Ceremony from the Common Book of Prayer. The meaning of this song is clearer if each word is treated as meaning the same thing at all points in the song.

Ashes lyrics