What does Once Upon a Dream mean?

Lana Del Rey: Once Upon a Dream Meaning

Album cover for Once Upon a Dream album cover

Song Released: 2014


Get "Once Upon a Dream" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

Once Upon a Dream Lyrics

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem
But if I know you, I know what you'll do You'll love me at once, the way...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Mar 28th 2019 !⃝

    It sounds like a couple getting back together. She knows him well, they've walked together before. The dream was the relationship they had before that ended. Relationships are not perfect and plans don't always go the way we want them to, visions are seldom what they seem, but doesn't mean they can't make it work. He has that gleam in his eyes, she's seen it in his eyes before, he fancies her. He will love her again just like he once did before.

  2. anonymous
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    Aug 30th 2023 !⃝

    I have two things I think this song is first I think it’s about a dream guy you can’t have like the lyric”you’ll love me at one the way you did once upon a dream “ so which I think means he will live you just like he did in your fantasies. My second one is a longer one . I think it means that you have a boring life and this song is referring to your other life and basically saying that you hope he or someone like him loves you like that did then
    And how you hope and wish to go back there . These are probably dumb

  3. anonymous
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    Apr 18th 2023 !⃝

    I think it's about spiritual connection with your twin flame whose meant to be.Even before meeting each other, both of your ways were always interwined subtly. And maybe you both knew each other before coming to this realm. Just one person remembers a glimpse of that vision.

  4. anonymous
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    Nov 15th 2021 !⃝

    My interpretation is a little different from the others. I recently lost my boyfriend in a fatal accident.

    ‘I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you, that look in your eye is so familiar, a gleam:’
    To me, this song represents meeting the guy of your dreams, who is no longer with us. And, now that he is no longer around, the relationship becomes harder to remember - almost like it happened once upon a dream.

    ‘And I know it’s true that visions are seldom as they seem:’ he’s back to life in my dreams. I can see him, and can visualise us… but of course, visions are seldom as they seem.

    ‘And if I know you, I know what you’ll do. You’ll love me at once. The way you did once upon a dream:’ If we’re reunited in the afterlife, I know that he’ll love me like he used to.

    This song breaks my heart, but it also brings me some comfort. He loved Lana Del Rey just as much as me, and I know that he’d love this song.

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 15th 2021 !⃝

    My interpretation is a little different from the others. I recently lost my boyfriend in a fatal accident.

    To me, this song represents meeting the guy of your dreams, who is no longer with us. And, now that he is no longer around, the relationship becomes harder to remember - almost like it happened once upon a dream.

    ‘And if I know you, I know what you’ll do. You’ll love me at once. The way you did once upon a dream.’

    If we’re reunited in the afterlife, I know that he’ll love me like he used to.

    This song breaks my heart, but it also brings me some comfort. He loved Lana Del Rey just as much as me, and I know that he’d love this song.

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 11th 2021 !⃝

    disregarding any reference to the film in the song, i think this song could be about someone you have a really strong connection with. maybe connected on a higher, spiritual level which is why they seem so familiar.

    it could be about reincarnation but thats a bit of a stretch. like you’ve died and you come back and you meet someone who you knew in your previous life which links back to my other point of the two people being deeply connected.

    another interpretation could be that maybe the two people are so connected that the person who’s perspective is singing the song, has already met their person in their dreams. they have waited all their life for this person. they have seen them within dreams, however have not consciously recognised the energy or person. when the two finally meet in person, the dreamer knows they have met before. maybe the gleam in their eyes represents the energy felt in the first person’s dreams.

    i hope that makes sense.

  7. anonymous
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    Jul 28th 2019 !⃝

    I think to write this ballad is to be the great song for relationships and so when the producer come in the studio they wrote once upon a dream, but it’s sound like the choir of ladies singing but they’re so good with singing at church but we liked that.

  8. anonymous
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    Oct 26th 2018 !⃝

    I think it's about how you used to have a relationship. It was perfect. Then it ended quite suddenly, like waking up from a dream. After "waking up", you wonder if that love was even real. "That gleam in your eyes" is just the faint memory of the love you once had. This song just makes me cry.

  9. Nino0214
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    Oct 13th 2017 !⃝

    I think it’s about having a unhealthy obsession on a love interest that won’t return your affections and the person is afraid of their admirer so they do everything they can to escape the admirer’s twisted vision of love but nothing seems to work and the person is trapped and can’t escape

  10. anonymous
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    Oct 13th 2017 !⃝

    I think it’s about having an unhealthy obsession with a crush and so he/she is dreaming that the two were a couple so that’s why Lana del Rey sounds like she is waking up And the person is afraid of their admirer and the person in love is probably watching them at every moment so the admirer is planning to kill their love interest if it turns out that they don’t return their affection just my assumption

  11. anonymous
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    Jun 11th 2017 !⃝

    I think it means that the person you like you made them seem amazing in your head but then in reality they not as great as you thought they would be so its like a dream.

  12. anonymous
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    May 6th 2015 !⃝

    I think it's about have a vision of perfection (maybe perfect man) and that person doesn't exist or you think that you find a perfect soul-mate and you don't know him/her so much and it's seems perfect and it's really not.You just dream about perfection.


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