Paradise by Coldplay

For my poetry assignment, I'm analyzing the song "Paradise" by Coldplay. ( Lyrics - http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/coldplay/paradise_20980626.html ) The first few lines of this song talks about a girl who wants to be in a better place. She wants her own paradise but she can't have it. So the song says that she "ran away in her sleep," meaning that she's going to dream of a better world. The second verse is all about how reality is hitting her about how life is hard and violent. It says that "she expected the world" but "bullets catch in her teeth." It seems that she is a girl growing up and realizing that life isn't a world full of happiness and dreams coming true. "Bullets" makes me think of reality hitting her sharp and fast.

It then says "life goes on, it gets so heavy" and "the wheel breaks the butterfly." I had to think hard about what "the wheel breaks the butterfly" meant. I'm pretty sure its a metaphor and it's using a butterfly as a symbol of a little girl's innocence and unawareness of the world around her. And then the wheel breaks the butterfly, symbolizing the brick wall she hit when she realized that life isn't what she thought. Then the song says, "in the stormy night away she'd fly." She'd fly as if she was the butterfly that would fly into a peaceful place. She escapes reality in her dreams, going to a world of paradise. The rest of the song is mainly singing the word "paradise" showing the flow of her dreams as she's in her paradise. It makes me think of a little girl running in a field of flowers and butterflies.