All Shall Fade

"The Edge of Night"
Home is behind,
The world ahead.
And there are many paths to tread.
Through shadow,
To the edge of night.
Until the stars are all alight.

Mist and shadow,
Cloud and shade.
All shall fade...
All shall... Fade. 


Click to see the version from the movie


This is a song from the third Lord of the Rings movie.  It is sung at a time of despair, in the middle of a war.  I think its words, about fading, represent how everything will eventually fade away.  It's a very sad song, speaking about the edge of night, which I think is a metaphor for either the end of life or maybe even the end of the afterlife.  I think it definitely suggests some sort of life after death, or a higher power.   Everything comes to an end, and everything must pass.  It's saying to go out there and live your life.


"Home is behind".  This says that you can't go back.  You can't take back anything you've done or said.  It's not safe like home is out in the world, but you have to leave it.  The world is ahead.  You have to go through it all the way, to the end, the "edge of night".  Through the bad times (the shadow) and all the good as well (the stars).  Night represents the end of day, or the end of life.  This poem is saying that you should live to the end of your life, leave your home, take the many paths.  No matter how deep the shadow is, the stars will be there to guide you out.  But in the end, everything must pass.  No one is immortal.  All shall fade.  But, life does exist.  There is happiness.  There are things to do in life other than suffering.  There's good too.  There is triumph and success, no matter how many bad things that happen.  Even at the edge of night, there's always the stars.  


This song nicely describes a journey through life.  You begin at home, but you can't stay there forever.  And once you leave you can't return.  There are the good things, the bad, but even in the bad, good can be found.  But you can never go back.  It moves forward relentlessly, and you can never get younger.  None can escape time.  It moves forward relentlessly, waiting for no one.  But still, it tells a reader to go forward.  Seize the opportunity.  Keep going until you've accomplished something.  But no matter how far you go, you can't go on for eternity.