“The World I Know” by Collective Soul

Collective Soul
Atlantic Records
1994

This song describes the narrator's awakening from the only world he's known to emerge in the the breathtaking reality of God’s kingdom.

Has our conscience shown?

Has the sweet breeze blown?

Has all the kindness gone?

Hope still lingers on

I drink myself of newfound pity

Sitting alone in New York City

And I don't know why

Are we listening

To hymns of offering?

Have we eyes to see

That love is gathering?

All the words that I've been reading

Have now started the act of bleeding

Into one

So I walk up on high

And I step to the edge

To see my world below

And I laugh at myself

As the tears roll down

'Cause it's the world I know

It's the world I know

I drink myself of newfound pity

Sitting alone in New York City

And I don't know why

So I walk up on high

And I step to the edge

To see my world below

And I laugh at myself

As the tears roll down

'Cause it's the world I know

It's the world I know

Interpretation

Has our conscience shown?
Has the sweet breeze blown?
Has all the kindness gone?
Hope still lingers on
The narrator wonders if society is too far gone to be saved. The world has ignored its conscience so we haven't experienced any "sweet breeze" of friendship, peace, or even "kindness". The story of civilization is hate, warfare, and death. Despite this grim realization, the narrator still has hope that it can be different.

I drink myself of newfound pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don't know why

Alone and wallowing in sorrow and self “pity”, the narrator laments the state of the world. He wants to know why the world is in such a state of brutality, but answers escape him; he doesn’t “know why”.

Are we listening
To hymns of offering?
Have we eyes to see
That love is gathering?

Next, the narrator wonders if we as humans (or maybe Christians specifically) recognize the message that Jesus taught; do we have “eyes to see”? A blatant reference to Jesus’ often repeated phrase, ‘he who has ears to hear, listen!’ The narrator calls us to wake up and recognize that “love is gathering”; God’s kingdom is breaking into our world.

All the words that I've been reading
Have now started the act of bleeding
Into one
The “words” the narrator has “been reading” is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. That amazing oratory is taking shape in the narrator’s mind as a unified force that will renew the world.

So I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself
As the tears roll down
'Cause it's the world I know
It's the world I know
This stanza paints two pictures. The first is one of suicide; going up to the roof (“on high”) and stepping “to the edge” as if to jump. The narrator “laughs” bitterly at himself while he’s crying because he realizes he is self-consumed, sick with self-love. The only “world” the narrator knows is this one characterized by selfishness. The emptiness of that world is enough to drive him suicide. The second picture conveys the narrator's spiritual transformation, an experience akin to walking in the clouds ("on high"). He steps "to the edge" of his selfishness ready to throw away his old world and jump into God's kingdom.

I drink myself of newfound pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don't know why

So I walk up on high
And I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself
As the tears roll down
'Cause it's the world I know
It's the world I know