Lyrics to "Give Me A Sign" by Breaking Benjamin

Dead star shine, light up the sky
I'm all out of breath, my walls are closing in
Days go by, give me a sign
Come back to the end, the shepherd of the damned

I can feel you falling away
No longer the lost, no longer the same
And I can see you starting to break
I'll keep you alive if you show me the way
Forever and ever the scars will remain
I'm falling apart, leave me here forever in the dark

Daylight dies, blackout the sky
Does anyone care? Is anybody there?
Take this life, empty inside
I'm already dead, I'll rise to fall again

I can feel you falling away
No longer the lost, no longer the same
And I can see you starting to break
I'll keep you alive if you show me the way
Forever and ever the scars will remain
I'm falling apart, leave me here forever in the dark

God, help me, I've come undone
Out of the light of the sun
God, help me, I've come undone
Out of the light of the sun

I can feel you falling away
No longer the lost, no longer the same
And I can see you starting to break
I'll keep you alive if you show me the way
Forever and ever the scars will remain

Give me a sign
There's something buried in the words
Give me a sign
Your tears are adding to the flood

Just give me a sign
There's something buried in the words
Give me a sign
Your tears are adding to the flood

Just give me a sign
There's something buried in the words
Give me a sign
Your tears are adding to the flood

Forever and ever the scars will remain

Breaking Benjamin Band Photo

Song Analysis 2: "Give Me A Sign" by Breaking Benjamin

“Give Me a Sign” Song Analysis

            Breaking Benjamin is one of the best rock bands to ever live; they bring the listener into a fantasy world filled with dark, juicy instrumentals. The band is well known for their insightful, dark lyrics. Breaking Benjamin gets the listener to feel the emotions that the song is trying to get across. The leader of the band is Benjamin Burnley, who recently lost his grandfather in 2008. Their newest album, Dear Agony, just came out in 2009 and it contains the song “Give Me a Sign”. Therefore, it is pretty accurate to say that the CD was mainly written focusing on the death of his grandfather and how he felt when he was and did lose him. In “Give Me a Sign” by Breaking Benjamin, he uses dramatic irony to further portray the struggle of losing a loved one.

            In “Give Me a Sign”, there are well used poetic devices that add to the overall mood of the song. An example of hyperbole is “leave me here forever in the dark” (Stanza 2/Line 18). This gives the listener an exaggerated idea of how he felt when he was losing a loved one. Another hyperbole is “forever-and ever the scars will remain” (Stanza 2/Line 15-16), which tells the listener that he will always have this loss to bear with him. These hyperboles exaggerate the words so we can feel that he is getting severely scarred from this loss. Benjamin Burnley uses dramatic irony like “daylight dies” (Stanza 3/Line 19), which adds to the dramatic and deathly feel of the song. The use of this dramatic irony makes the listener understand how serious the topic is.

            There are many themes and deeper meanings addressed in the song, “Give Me a Sign”. A theme in this song is having someone you care about be dying and all you want is a sign to know that they will be okay. An example of this in the song is “ I can feel you falling away”(Stanza 1/Line 9). This hints to the listener that the main character is aware of the upcoming death. Another example of the theme of death is “take this life” (Stanza 3/Line 23), which tells the listener that a life is about to be taken away. The deeper meaning to this song is that we should life for the dying and we all get scarred when we lose a loved one. An example of this is “there’s something buried in the words” (Stanza 7/Line 58), which is also an example of ambiguity. It is an example of ambiguity because when someone is dying the often have last words that they say before they die. I took this as he gave his last words but the loved ones family need to figure out the deeper meaning of what he wants.

            The poetic devices in the song embellish the overall feeling of loss and add to the deeper meaning of the song. The two major themes in this song are death and loss, you have the one who died and the ones who have to continue life without that loved one. “Give Me a Sign” relates to the wider scope of musical appreciation because it is personal song about dealing with the death of a loved one, especially since Benjamin Burnley just lost his grandfather in 2008. Also, that he honored the CD to the death of his grandfather. Burnley just has to give the listener good examples of poetic devices and themes to get his overall message across in the song. Finally, the song “Give Me a Sign” by Breaking Benjamin, adds to the greater scope of the music appreciation because it gives people the ability to listen to songs that have to do with death and everyone can relate to this, plus feel strongly about it.