What does Shadow of the Day mean?

Linkin Park: Shadow of the Day Meaning

Album cover for Shadow of the Day album cover

Song Released: 2007


Shadow of the Day Lyrics

I close both locks below the window.
I close both blinds and turn away.
Sometimes solutions aren’t so simple.
Sometimes goodbye’s the only way.

And the sun will set for you,
The sun will set for you.
And the shadow of the day,
Will...

  1. Jon Metrick
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    Jan 19th 2011 !⃝

    ok this is going to be completely different and maybe based too much on personal experience but here goes:
    This song is me and my wifes ‘song’ cuz it was playing when we met. When I heard it, I felt it was about falling in love. When she left her country to move in with me, she dealt with a lot of grief from friends and family.
    The first verse is when she had to get her house ready for sale. Leaving it for the last time wasn’t easy, but she felt she had to leave home and her country to be with me.
    The sun setting is not about death, its aboutthe end of her life there, making way for a new beginning. When your in love, there is no black and white, no right and wrong. Your in love and you'll do anything to be with your love.
    The second verse is about them sending her going away gifts and asking her if she was crazy and trying to get her to change her mind.

  2. anonymous
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    Jan 15th 2011 !⃝

    ...I do agree with the "Top rated". Possibly the song is about someone, someone he love, is dying. But, what if, that "someone" is not just a person, it's us - "Human beings"?
    "Shadow of the day" is the shade behind the fake glory, what is left when "the sun are set".
    The greatest problems we're facing, "Will embrace the world in grey".
    Watching the video make me think so. People lost in the chaos of their mind, feeling deeply depressed. The rhymte sounds peacefully, but sad...
    "I close both locks below the window, I close both blind and turn away"
    We're just lying to ourselves! Staying in "our own safe area", locking the door tightly, hiding behind the blind... so that we'll not have to look at the sun. Look at the truth! Look at our faults and the consequences of our actions
    ...Ignoring the truth won't get us anywhere! But it seems like, "sometimes" it was just too late for us to refix, to "Beginning" again, to find the "solutions".
    "Sometimes goodbye's the only way".
    And I wonder, if right now, our time of existense finally come to an end, who will say "good bye" to us all?

  3. anonymous
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    Dec 9th 2010 !⃝

    Watch the music video and it may clear up.
    But I'll try to explain anyway.

    If you think about it... what is a shadow? Darkness... what is darkness? Depression... what is depression? Sorrow...
    The shadow of the day is the darkest, most depressing moment of sorrow.

    I don't think it's about someone dying... you can't really plead for someone dying. You can't ask them to come back. I think it's one of two things:

    1) Someone leaving for war. The music video makes me think of this one more because of the turbulence and the "war" in town.

    2) I think it could also be about someone that is wanting to commit suicide. The music video also makes me think it could be this because when you watch, he is walking (casually) while there are S.W.A.T teams shooting. Molotav cocktails are being thrown, and citizens are fighting... walking out there is basically suicide.

    This is my theory. Hope it might've shed some light on the shadow (pun :P)!

  4. mpreston909
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    Dec 2nd 2010 !⃝

    I think the person that is passing, sees the world in gray. Meaning, they don't see the world black and white (which is fairly common of ordinary people). This person, is an extraordinary person. They have the indescribable presence and ability to see people at their truest and deep broken down form. Often, a place that others would never express out loud to other people. Therefore, this person that has passed and has these abilities, attracts an unbelievable amount of people to them. What I mean, is the type of people are those people that when they walk in the room, everybody looks and stare and wants to be with that person, for they are the truest and rawest person you could ever see.

    When a person like that passes, (they have always made such an impact on the lives of the people who knew that person, I can't help but feel that those that were honored to be a part of that persons world, and I will forever feel a profound sense of unhappiness, because the world has lost such an uninhibited and honest person.

  5. anonymous
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    Oct 20th 2010 !⃝

    I'm thinking by the way it says "Pink cards and flowers on your window" he's talking about a loved one having cancer and trying to keep faith that he/she is gonna make it, but knowing in his heart that the person will end up not making it. So the part where he says "I close both blinds and turn away" he's probably referring to the fact that if they die, he doesn't want them to be in pain.

  6. anonymous
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    Aug 11th 2010 !⃝

    It is about his friend dying from Cancer..

  7. ivansama
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    Apr 19th 2010 !⃝

    Yeah this is a song about going away but there's something we've been getting wrong the whole time. He's not the one going away. "And cards and flowers on your window your friends all plead for YOU to stay"
    that's all l wanted to add. And also maybe when he sais "and the sun will set for you" he mean that they'll be half way around the world. after that he sais "the shadow of the DAY will embrace the world in gray."

  8. ivansama
    click a star to vote
    Jan 9th 2010 !⃝

    to make it simple it's pretty much a song about having to leave somebody. the person does not want to leave but has to.
    Sort of like forbidden love.

  9. musicforlyfe
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    Dec 14th 2009 !⃝

    I agree with MRO
    its like hes saying goodbye to someone that he loves very much but it's really hard for him.
    "Sometimes goodbye’s the only way."
    I think what he's saying is he has to leave for some reason for something he did.
    maybe I'm wrong

  10. anonymous
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    Dec 9th 2009 !⃝

    I think that this song about closing a chapter of his life. I think that it's about someone close dying. When he slides both locks and closes both blinds, he's taking one final look at his beloved before walking away for good. The flowers and cards on the window are for the dying person. Her/ his friends are begging for her/ him to hold on. But sometimes goodbye is the only way. The person has to pass on. The sun sets on them, and it's farewell for now.

  11. anonymous
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    Oct 26th 2009 !⃝

    This song is about someone who loves someone else, but for some reason their relationship is falling apart at the seams. He knows the only way to solve things is to leave. People (the girl) plead for him to stay, but he is firm in his decision. The sun setting for this person is her disappointment that he left her, her sadness. I don't know, maybe I'm completely wrong, but that's what I think.

  12. anonymous
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    Aug 15th 2009 !⃝

    My interpretation of this song is what it is like to go through depression and actually attempt to end your life. if you lock your windows and close your blinds it is sounding like you have shut yourself off from the world. the cards and flowers on the window indicate the actual attempt but you are now hospitalized as people close to you don't want you to leave. i write this from friends who have attempted to end their life.

  13. anonymous
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    Jul 19th 2009 !⃝

    I think this song is about Suicide and how he tries to comfort his friends.

  14. anonymous
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    Jul 19th 2009 !⃝

    I think this song is about Suicide and how he tries to comfort his friends.

  15. anonymous
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    Jul 12th 2009 !⃝

    I think this song is about leaving, but not about leaving one person- leaving in general. About starting over, and needing to do that somewhere else.

    "I close both locks below the window
    I close both blinds and turn away"

    Refers to being in a place, and making sure everything is kept nice and taking one last look around before walking away.

    "Sometimes solutions aren't so simple
    Sometimes good bye's the only way"

    May be referring to having thought there was a solution to the problem he/she needs to get away from, but having realized, that solutions aren't always easy, or don't always work the way you think they do.

    "And the sun will set for you
    The sun will set for you

    And the shadow of the day
    Will embrace the world in grey

    And the sun will set for you"

    May or may not refer to a person or problem. As in, the sun will set the person leaving is saying this because they're trying to explain that eventually things will be at ease.

    "In cards and flowers on your window
    Your friends all plead for you to stay"

    Meaning that, his/her friends are asking him/her, to stay, in letters flowers, meaning, his/her friends are trying to tell him things will eventually work out if he/she stays in one place.

    "Sometimes beginnings aren't so simple
    Sometimes good bye's the only way"

    Referring to having to start over, due to whatever conflict life has thrown this person, and he/she is saying that the only way to start again is say goodbye to this life, and begin again elsewhere.




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