What does Kiss From a Rose mean?

Seal: Kiss From a Rose Meaning

Tagged: Kissing [suggest]
Album cover for Kiss From a Rose album cover

Song Released: 1994


Kiss From a Rose Lyrics

There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine...

  1. anonymous
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    Aug 17th 2017 !⃝

    "I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the gray." Notice he's not saying "kiss by a rose." The rose is the pipe, the kiss is the drug that comes from the rose (pipe), the "gray" is the brain (gray matter) where a drug would have its effect. Her love is what gives him the high. "The more I get of you the stranger it feels, yeah." And "love remains a drug that's the high not the pill" another reference to how her love affects him, more than would a drug. And I personally have never done drugs so please don't call me a "drug idiot" too. It just makes the most sense.

  2. anonymous
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    Jun 23rd 2017 !⃝

    The song has a double meaning. He said it himself. It's about his relationship with cocaine before he had a record deal, and could also be interpreted as a relationship with a woman. Anyone who argues otherwise is arguing with the artists own words.

  3. anonymous
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    Mar 23rd 2017 !⃝

    The idiot who thinks this is about pedophilia needs mental help and should not be interpreting words of any kind.

  4. anonymous
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    Mar 20th 2017 !⃝

    The rose represents a female soulmate, just like a man has a negative side, a rose's thorns represents the female negative.

    Kissed by a rose on the grey, means she's penetrated his mind i.e. Grey matter.

    Basically the song is about a man who meets a soulmate and recognizes this is no ordinary hookup and that together they make each other a more well rounded and better person. For example, when times are tough (when it snows) she can reach him and help him see more clearly (the light that you shine can be seen) btw this goes both ways.

    Keep this in mind when you read the lyrics and you will see it. I'm really surprised no one else got that grey is the brain, grey matter.

    Your Welcome

  5. anonymous
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    Jan 31st 2017 !⃝

    The song could be about drugs. We used to say it was "snowing" when people were using cocaine, back in the 1970s.

    In the 1990s I used to think it was a love song.

    But why is Seal hiding its true meaning? Is he ashamed it is about drugs? Or is its meaning more sacred?

    I now believe the song has spiritual connotations that have nothing to do with drugs or a lover.

    Jesus is referred to as the "Rose" of Sharon in the Bible. Jesus arose from death and overcame sin and death. Seal could have been saying Christ is his power, as in the power of the gospel to change his life. Christ is his pleasure, in that Jesus brings joy to the believer's life. Pain, is how life brings suffering that God uses to change us and make us grow to be more like Jesus and want to bless others. The world of unbelievers would consider a true Christian crazy or "unhealthy" because he seeks God in faith rather than psychology, addictions, astrology or false religion to be freed from the bondage of sin, and in that, the more the lyric writer gets of God the more strange to the world and even to himself it would seem because he never experienced it before he became alive spiritually in Jesus. This is so exhilarating it becomes like a light or lighthouse in darkness (Jesus said His followers are light to the world and Jesus called Himself light.) His faith becomes like a growing addiction, the more of that liberty and freedom he experiences in Christ, the more he wants fellowship with God and to grow in Jesus. And if he falls he knows Jesus, the rose, has been his light and his rose. The snow that pours down is the Holy Spirit pouring down Jesus' love on him that illuminates his understanding or opens his eyes.

  6. anonymous
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    Aug 4th 2016 !⃝

    Rose is a symbol for the pure white aryan race.
    This song is about racial defilement. Just listen and think from this perspectiv and you will be enlighted.
    Greetings to all the american bastards.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  7. anonymous
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    Jun 14th 2016 !⃝

    Just a personal observation. Take a look at the song as a whole. The lyrics are just insane. They don't make sense. And the parts that do are very obvioisly drug refferences to coke. "when it snows" common expression in refference to coke. "my eyes become large" dialation of the eyes also common while taking coke. I think the whole song is a hallucinagenic idea after doing a bunch of coke. Don't get me wrong I like the song the music is well written and the delivery of the lyrics is great but the meaning may be a little less romantic then it is trippy.

  8. anonymous
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    May 1st 2016 !⃝

    Its obviously not about drugs idiots. The line, "a drug that's the high and not the pill".its a comparison. Some people will push drugs no matter what, next they will say eye of the tiger is about fighting drug addiction...

  9. anonymous
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    Apr 18th 2016 !⃝

    Kiss from a rose on the grey.

    It beleive Seal is comparing the stark contrast of a bright red rose to a grey and dismal sky, and this is a metaphor for the effect this woman, the focal point of the song, has on Seal and his dismal existence without her.

    Imagine holding a bright red and green freshly cut rose to a greying and cloudy sky. The imagery alone would have a meaningful effect of the viewer.

  10. anonymous
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    Feb 27th 2016 !⃝

    A rose is also what a crack pipe is called, now listen did you know when it snows( cocaine) my eyes become wide(pupils widen)the light that you shine cant be seen a relationship of his is affected by the cocaine?crack habit.

  11. anonymous
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    Feb 2nd 2016 !⃝

    He is celebrating his pedophilia. Lets start from the beginning of the song.

    'There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
    You became the light on the dark side of me.
    Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.'

    Describing himself and his feelings towards a young girl...

    'That when it snows,
    My eyes become large and
    The light that you shine can be seen.'

    Describing his orgasm...and then it starts turning towards the pedophilia...

    'The more I get of you,
    The stranger it feels, yeah.
    And now that your rose is in bloom.'

    A young girl that reached puberty and has started getting her period. The older she gets the weirder he feels about the relationship.

    'There is so much a man can tell you,
    So much he can say.'

    He lets us know that he isn't done yet though...he has a lot more he has yet to do.

    'You remain,
    My power, my pleasure, my pain, baby
    To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny.'

    Confirming to listeners that he is not yet done.

    'Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby?'

    He wants people to tell him this is a normal situation.

    Then it is just a repeat of his orgasm lyrics and telling people he is far from done being a pedophile.

    The song is sickening...it is not hard to see what this song is about.

  12. jamey
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    Nov 22nd 2015 !⃝

    I see it different I guess. He starts by mentioning a lighthouse (graying tower) alone on the sea. His love is the light that shines out (from the dark/water side) onto the sea beckoning him when the snow starts to fly. That love is a high, not a pill so it's nothing to do with drugs. At first I thought he was as the lighthouse but then he says when his love shines, he can see her light with large eyes. It's clearly all metaphorical as he goes on by saying "I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the gray. "The gray" is in reference to the sea. She is as the fragrant sweetness that clears the sinus's of the oceanic atmosphere. She is also the beacon that summons him from an ocean of loneliness (he was alone in the world before seeing her). He can see her glow as her rose is in bloom (lighthouse is running full bright). It is as beautiful of lyrics as I have ever heard but a well told story.....

  13. anonymous
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    Nov 21st 2015 !⃝

    The high and not the pill... He enjoys the feeling he gets from the thing (drug/lover) but not the thing itself.

    This is a song about addiction and the power, pleasure, and pain it brings to the gray areas many of us addicts have. Questioning it over and over only ever giving in every time.

    Whether it's cake, TV, sex, drugs, etc we have vices. And some of us sing poetically about it.

  14. anonymous
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    Oct 24th 2015 !⃝

    He was the tower until she came along and her symbolic sun like light brightened his weathered, graying, dark northern exposure side or he regrets not buying a secluded ocean front property in the past.

    Love remains the drug that's the high not the pill. Like when you're young and not synical yet or when love is new or he discovered the awesomeness of canibalism and a blender.

    She's the snow. I know she's the light and the rose, hello! She's everything or see the idiots about a drug reference.

    If he's the graying tower, you ever see when branches or roses rub against a building or graying wood fence they clear a bright spot, windshield wiper like area. And of course every rose has it's thorn and of course soft pedals like lips or see the idiots with the sex or drug references.

    There is so much a man can tell you...there are too many words and too much love in my hearr to say, I can't fit it all in this song, but the love is there. So much love or how about cleaning the tower and a cooked meal now and then when I get home. Don't get me started.

    Your a growing addiction...I love you so much already and its getting worse, is that healthy, do you feel the same way or am I screwed or see the drug idiots again

    Or maybe the gray area is his confusion over transexuals and he's confused by his conflicting masculine and feminine feelings

    Or he's talking about aliens (grays)

    Or maybe it IS batman, that Nicole chick has some pretty pale skin (snow) and wasn't Alfred often tending flowers at Wayne Mansion? Was that by the sea? Hope Seal isn't a pedophile. That would ruin the song for me. Kinda weird the whole young ward Robin thing going on there and there was Top Gun's overtures.

    Deep song unless your with the whole drugs or sex knuckle heads but it takes all types, live and let die (don't wven get me started on that song)

  15. anonymous
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    Dec 18th 2014 !⃝

    Have any of you people read Shakespeare? A rose by any other name?




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