Lyrics

One Last Song by Josiah Leming

The ship was sinking; we were drinking, singing one last song,
The literal meaning in the first line is that the speaker and others were singing and drinking on a sinking ship. When I heard this line, I imagined sailors on a ship knowing that they won't make it out alive, so they take their last drinkings and enjoy what time they have left.

Casting our gold into the ocean.
Ships were once a way of transportation for goods and people. Many times, gold could've been the cargo. So as the ship sinkings, the cargo would eventually fall out. Therefore, the gold is casted in the ocean.

You grabbed a bucket, started screaming, "Come on, come on",

Greed is one of the human instincts. Since gold is so precious, one our reaction is to grab it. However, gold in this song could've symbolized something else that was precious. Prehaps, life? time?

Trying to slow the downward motion.
When something sinks, it's going down. But I take it as trying to embrace what's left of time.

Back in the kingdom, we were kings and queens and Oh, so strong
That God himself could not contain us.
Before this tragedy, they felt superior. Prior to the sinking ship, they felt like it wasn't going to happen.

We never thought we'd be the shorter half of sword and gun.
Now god himself could never save us.

Ever heard of the saying the short end of the stick? I take it as being the unlucky one of two. So unlucky that there's nothing one can do to prevent what was going to happen.

Waves of silver, waves of gold
Are coming now to take me,
To separate my body from my soul
And Jesus either leaves or takes me.
Hopes of heaven, fears of hell
Tell me, what's the chance I'll make it.
All my other plans have failed,
And all this time I've faked it.

The speaker is showing a sign of fear for the first time in the poem. In the previos stanza, he/she seems to be reminiscing on what he/she used to have and what had happened. But this stanza shows fear of what will happen. Also, the last 2 lines of the stanza implies that the speaker never really worked for what he/she has. The speaker also implies that he/she has been getting by "life"(maybe) by coming up with deeds to use others. However, he still hopes to make it out alive.

We started sinking, drinking water from the open sea
Losing our bodies to the ocean.
You grabbed my hand and started screaming, "rescue me"
Together fight the downward motion.
Back in the kingdom we were kings and queens and Oh, so strong
That god himself just had to show us.
We never thought we'd see the colder side of land and sea
But he's the only one who knows us.

In this last stanza, the speaker seems to be giving up on hope. He/She is facing reality. Even though it says that they're fight the downward motion, the second to last line shows that they are facing reality because if he wasn't he/she wouldn't know that they aren't in their fantasy world anymore. God himself just had to show us implies that a higher power is causing him to fail.

Overall, the moral of this peom is don't think you're better than anyone else or don't be overly confident in yourself because things can go wrong. I really like this song because it shows 3 stages. 1st stage: The speaker still thinks he's superior. 2nd stage: The speaker is beginning to doubt himself, however still hopes to make it. 3rd stage: reality check. The speaker realizes what he got himself into and also realize that he/she is not so superior afterall.