What does Iris mean?

Goo Goo Dolls: Iris Meaning

Album cover for Iris album cover

Song Released: 1998


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Iris Lyrics

And I’d give up forever to touch you
'cause I know that you feel me somehow
You’re the closest to heaven that i’ll ever be
And I don’t want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
’cause...

  1. anonymous
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    Dec 15th 2007 !⃝

    I don't know much about the song but I don't think the word "iris is meant to be a girls name. The word iris is actually a part of the eye so maybe its got something to do with a man seeing that a girl is so beautiful and he can't believe his with her.

  2. anonymous
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    Nov 29th 2007 !⃝

    All this stuff about it being about gay love is stupid, watch the music video. It has clips from the movie, including the part where Nicholas Cage begins to fall from the building, and it has a whole bunch of short clips from the movie... can it be anymore obvious who is right??? seriously, but I don't know why you guys are getting so anal about this, a song is like any good piece of literature, it is there to inspire, and whatever it means to you is what really matters, so all you gay lovers out there, if this is your song then good for you, and if this is a song about an amazing love that is so fragile and so precious that it means everything to you, and you would give anything for it, well than welcome to my world, and power to you as well.

  3. anonymous
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    Nov 4th 2007 !⃝

    Fair enough it was written for a film but I look at this song as thoughts people have for someone they feel they cannot have for fear of rejection or hurting someone, but secretly they still want them....

  4. anonymous
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    Oct 31st 2007 !⃝

    Has anyone noticed that none of the homophobes had usernames? Does the fact that they want to remain anonymous have anything to do with the fact that they don't want to look like hypocrites? Don't look at the fact that you can't see who wrote this either.

  5. anonymous
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    Oct 27th 2007 !⃝

    Yeah, this song was written for 'City Of Angels'. Because of its universal lyrics, for many people it has also come to represent the way they hide themselves from the world (or the people they love) for fear of not being good enough, while at the same time wanting to be acknowledged.

    "I don't want the world to see me,
    'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
    When everything's made to be broken
    I just want you to know who I am."

    The line "When everything feels like the movies, yeah you bleed just to know you're alive" could be about the sense of unreality often accompanied by these feelings of self doubt.

    Of course, everyone is free to interpret a song however they want, and if it gives meaning to them, then that's cool!

  6. anonymous
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    Aug 28th 2007 !⃝

    I feel that this song is about an angel of god & that he has heavenly duties, on one of his heavenly missions he meets a beautiful girl named "Maggie" he visits her, he is captivated by her stunning beauty & madly falls in love with her.
    she soon falls in love with him to. They somehow reunite & they have sex together. Then she dies from a truck & now Seth plate has to suffer human pain.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  7. anonymous
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    Aug 22nd 2007 !⃝

    I honestly think it's about a stalker who's desperatly in love with this girl and if you see the video it clearly says that.

  8. anonymous
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    Aug 15th 2007 !⃝

    I never saw the movie, that this song was written for, but this is really what it means to me.

    It's about someone having a secret love. As you see in the video for the song "iris", the guy is kinda spying on her. The secret love, is somone more higher then him, and he is so fascinated by her beauty and puts aside his time to watch her. He senses she may have feelings for a somone like him, thought she dosent know he exist. :

    And I'd give up forever to touch you
    Cause I know that you feel me somehow
    You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
    And I don't want to go home right now

    All he imagines is the moment he confesses his love to her tonight. To tell her all he does is watch her every move, and how he can't live without her. He knows if he tells her that its going to be over tonight, so he dosent want to miss her sight this one last time.

    And all I can taste is this moment
    And all I can breathe is your life
    Cause sooner or later it's over
    I just don't want to miss you tonight

    He really wants to confess his love for her. But he imagines himself telling her the truth of spying on her. It shocks him knowing he can't really tell her the truth. Its like tears he knows he has, but won't come because he isn't truly sad, but mad at himself. He feels, what he is feeling is untrue, like the movies. and wonders if its even true.

    And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
    Or the moment of truth in your lies
    When everything seems like the movies
    Yeah you bleed just to know your alive

    He dosent want want the world to know about this. Its because he thinks he isn't the most appealing person for his love. Though he deeply has feelings for her, he dosent want to break the boundries that is set for him. He dosent think the world would understand how much he secretly loved her from afar, to confess to her.It would be strange. He knows since everything he was restricted from is already broken he wants her to finally know who he really is. And the love she could be looking for is him.

    I don't want the world to see me
    Cause I don't think that they'd understand
    When everything's made to be broken
    I just want you to know who I am


    i love you jacob.

  9. anonymous
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    Aug 2nd 2007 !⃝

    "Iris" was written specifically for the movie, "City of Angels". It supposed to be told from Nicholas Cage's character's POV, an angel who falls in love with a mortal woman, Meg Ryan.

    "...And I’d give up forever to touch you"

    He is stating how he would be willing to give up his angelic existence if he could just once know what it feels like to touch her. In the movie, he's intangible.


    "...’cause I know that you feel me somehow"

    Even though humans aren't supposed to feel/know an angel's presence, he feels somehow she can feels/knows his.

    "...You’re the closest to heaven that i’ll
    Ever be"

    Ironic that he's an angel who inhabits heaven, but he only feels fully complete and heavenly when he's near her.

    "...And I don’t want to go home right now"

    He doesn't want to go back to heaven, he only wishes to be near her.

    "...And I don’t want the world to see me
    ’cause I don’t think that they’d Understand
    When everything’s made to be broken
    I just want you to know who I am"

    He doesn't care about facing the rest of the world, as he knows how destructible and callous it is. He only needs her to be able to understand his love for her.

    "...And you can’t fight the tears that ain’t Coming
    Or the moment of truth in your lies
    When everything feels like the movies"

    These are all characteristics of human actions, things that he's not allowed to experience but she can.

    "...Yeah you bleed just to know you’re alive"

    As an angel, blood did not flow through his immortal body. When he finally "dies" to become human, the first thing he sees and feels is blood from his wounds, proving that he was in fact now human.

  10. anonymous
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    Jul 15th 2007 !⃝

    Song actually is about Iris Murdoch and John Bayley.

    Iris was popular writer. She got Alzheimer's but her loving husband was with her untill the end, even when she acted like 3 years old. That's what lyric is all about.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Jun 18th 2007 !⃝

    I think this song is about a shy guy who doesn't want anyone to know him for who he really is"I don't want the world to see me" but this girl makes him want to tell and show the world his true personality.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    May 26th 2007 !⃝

    Well said Geo. I totally agree, there is always going ti be a story but songs can mean whatever you want them to mean.

    i am jerry...

  13. anonymous
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    May 26th 2007 !⃝

    I understand every part of the song etc except "or the moment of truth in your lies" in the story of the song/movie what does this line mean? Post back according to the movie point of view.
    help with my query please :)

  14. anonymous
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    May 26th 2007 !⃝

    If you want the very plain and simple straight out explanation, yes the song is based on the movie City Of Angels and all of the above explanations are right .eg. after falling from the building he sees that he is in fact human "yeah you bleed just to know your alive" and "I'd give up forever to touch you, cause I know that you feel me somehow" is Johnny's interpretation of how the character is an angel and cannot physically touch the woman he loves for she is mortal, so he would give up being able to "live" forever as an angel for a seamlessly short period of life as a human.

    After much research into the subject, I have discovered that the name Iris does in fact simply come from skimming through a newspaper and seeing a local artists name and using that.

    However, like any song, all songs have special meanings to each individual that hears it. There are so many "interpretations" of a song, there is the very "on the surface" type explanations (the movie) and then there are the more in-depth meanings that vary in the mind and heart of the listener. Is it not true that there are songs that remind you of a certain memories? are there not songs that their meanings have nothing to do with the feeling you get from them?
    It is a very great thing to explore what a song means to you.

    Since when is song just about what the actual word for word is saying? Why can't it be more what the song means to YOU?


    ...keep on posting...


    xx Geo! (believe in Jerry)

  15. anonymous
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    May 12th 2007 !⃝

    This song is amazing. It doesn't really have a certain "special meaning" to me, but all the same it is a great song.

    The lyrics are so meaningful.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway



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