What does Paradise mean?

Coldplay: Paradise Meaning

Album cover for Paradise album cover

Song Released: 2011


Paradise Lyrics

Oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo.
Oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo.

When she was just a girl,
She expected the world,
But it flew away from her reach,
So she ran away in her sleep.

And dreamed of...

  1. anonymous
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    May 14th 2012 !⃝

    when I hear this song I think of a little girl who grows up and she thought the world was perfect when she was little but as she gets older she knows that's not how it is and the only way she can reach HER "paradise" is in her dreams when she is sleeping and she can think of every thing the way it is suppose to be and she can live in it till she wakes

  2. anonymous
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    May 12th 2012 !⃝

    This "little girl" doesn't have to be a literal "little girl" it can be applied as anyone. All people have their hard times in life and sometimes it is the most painful moment in life for them. Like the how "the wheel breaks the butterfly" the wheel was a method of great torture for the Europeans back then. The most scariest method. The most painful. The "little girl" as the song refers to or everyone as I refer to always have their hard times in life, it is usually painful and scariest moment in life. And during those "stormy skies"(or dark and hard days) we dream of paradise, the moments that bring us peace and we dream of the time everything will get better and the future that can hold everything we want like the little girl who dreams of escaping her dark world. But the word paradise is always written many times to show how hard that paradise is to reach how far that is and how hard the person may have to work to reach their paradise. To do their very best in getting closer and closer to this amazing paradise of yours.

  3. anonymous
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    May 1st 2012 !⃝

    The only paradise is in the life that is beyond this earth. You can look for it here on earth we all do but it is fleeting and will tragically disappoint you.

  4. anonymous
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    Apr 29th 2012 !⃝

    Omg I want to I love this song it remines me of when I was a little girl and mi most favorite part of the song is wen at the end they sing this could be paradise like she found what she wanted ohh and the vidio is soo hart warming with that elephant haha well anyway I think the song means a girl dreaming of a lala land and she faces that it is a tough world out there ohh and dat doude who said its about suicide is mently retarted I mean did you ever here the song woof

  5. anonymous
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    Apr 28th 2012 !⃝

    I think this song is about a girl growing up in a slum or a place full of distress. Her parents do there best to care for her and tell her she can have a better life, so she always has hope. In her sleep she dreams of a safe place. When she gets older she longs for this better place her mother promised her, still enduring the conditions she was raised in. Finally she is rescued and brought to Paradise. That night she dreams of her life and knows that she has found the place she belongs.

  6. anonymous
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    Apr 8th 2012 !⃝

    This song is about a girl, and as a child she expects life to be brilliant. As the song progresses, it shows her growing up and realising that life is harder than she thought. But near the end of the song, She accepts that fact, and realises it doesn't matter and that life will get better. "I know the sun was set to rise" means that in the darkness shed been living in, she knows the sun will rise again and life shall be better.

  7. anonymous
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    Apr 6th 2012 !⃝

    Metaphors are widely mentioned. A stalwartly noteworthy one is “Life gets heavy”. I interpret this as life becomes hard to manage, and occasionally out of control. This strongly relates to the song because life’s simplistic and one-dimensional as a child, but once responsibilities are thrust upon you, it becomes increasingly difficult to deal with complications. In addition to “life gets heavy”, another metaphor encountered is “ran away in her sleep”. This statement validates that paradise is a thought because the character in the song dreams of paradise. In spite of the impeccable usage of metaphors, the lyrics don’t include any personification, or similes.
    The tone of the song is positive because it explains the possibility to attain paradise impalpably. People may feel restricted to paradise as majestic splendor, or serene scenery, however the lyrics express that paradise can be found within a dream, and if you travel in the past to your childish, young, imaginative state of mind, paradise is awaiting you.
    These symbolic messages are depicted via the tale of a woman, whose life is reflected on by the singer. As a child, the woman expected the world to be perfect. As she grew up and lost her innocence in her years of adolescence, she abruptly is educated that her utopia isn’t exactly perfect, in fact, it’s astronomically far from flawless. She then remembers only imaging paradise in her sleep, and wishes to achieve this. She learns by experience that happiness is harder to find as a constantly aging adult, but when she reflects on her childhood, she can envisage paradise.

  8. anonymous
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    Apr 5th 2012 !⃝

    This song is about a girl who finds that the world falls short of her expectations, so she goes to be in her dreams, which are paradise to her. The line “This could be paradise…” makes me think that the girl thinks that somehow the world could be like her perfect ideal place. There is also another line I like “I know the sun must set to rise…” The line is like there have to be bad times (the sun setting) in order for you to appreciate the good times (the sun rising).

  9. anonymous
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    Apr 2nd 2012 !⃝

    I find a more paychedelic meaning in this song. The little girl, respresenting innocence had high hoppes and dreamed very positively about the world and future life in it. However, reality kicked in.. It's not all that pretty or that easy. Though she still has an escape from all this tension and bullshit. She's only happy in her trips. 'Trips' being actual sleep or any other 'trip'..

    Just my thought on the song.

  10. anonymous
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    Mar 27th 2012 !⃝

    I think it's about a girl that was knocked into a self-incurred coma, because life wasn't as she expected.

    'So she ran away in her sleep'
    She ran away, into her sleep, as in a coma.

  11. anonymous
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    Mar 25th 2012 !⃝

    I think the song is about a girl who, when she was young, thought she was gonna grow up with a beautiful perfect life (good husband, kids, a good edu., confidence, good looks, etc.) but as she goes on to try these new things, nothing comes out as she expected. maybe she gets her heart broken, or her parents fight a lot, or everyone at school makes fun of her, or she gets in a really bad accident, stuff like that. so she starts dreaming of her version of paradise and thinks the only way to get to paradise is to commit suicide and find god but then she picks herself up and realizes you can find paradise in the little things and keeps trying to get to paradise here on earth. I dont know if that's right but that's what I think the song means. thanks for listening! oh and I absolutely LOVE this song<3

  12. anonymous
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    Mar 20th 2012 !⃝

    This song reminds me of my childhood friend. She's a Pisceans. Since child to a grown married woman, her life are like living robot with overprotected family. Everybody making decisions for that poor lil girl. She lives in the world of her own, even when they are completely aware of the rough side of humanity.

    In their world, everyone is good and everything is beautiful.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  13. anonymous
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    Mar 7th 2012 !⃝

    I think the song is about a girl who expects exerything to work out and her dreams to come true but she never works for it and doesn't end up achieving her ambition. Then it's about her not giving up and still having dreams and then starts working hard. I think it has a double meaning and is also about the environment and natural things being destroyed by people and their ever advancing technology. But anyway, just enjoy the song guys! It's awesome!

  14. Brittingham
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    Mar 6th 2012 !⃝

    The real meaning of this song is that we all have aspirations to be a great person. We see it as an easy goal when we are kids because we see others who have obtained such a feat that we must make it there as well but when we get older the bullet of reality finally hits us and we can only stop that bullet by finding the people that truly make us happy. Family, Friends, and the person we with unconditional love can not live with out. Then as we come to the end of are lives and set as the sun does we will rise to a true paradise.

  15. Johnson Zhong
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    Feb 24th 2012 !⃝

    My take on this song is that it's talking about the general human condition. We are born into naivete, with the thought that we are truly exceptional (understandable since we are only fully aware of our own existence). This is in contrast to the reality that we are simply bumbling Elephants (to use a rough metaphor), trying to get through life any way possible. The ride (as the highway) is a long way, and one in which we have to get across awkwardly, as on a unicycle - requiring extreme balance between important aspects of our life (such as work and relationships). Finally, we meet up with others like ourself, the other bumbling elephants, which is to say that we finally find our passion in life. We then have a hell of a good time, with the metaphor being a rock concert, but then the song of our life ends, as we die.




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