Florence + the Machine - Never Let Me Go Lyrics Meaning

LOL It's incredible how almost everyone is wrong about the lyrics.

But first, anyone who read the fairy tale "THE LITTLE MERMAID" knows how to interpretate the song. So for those who don't understand or didn't read the tale, I will post my interpretation here.

Let's interpretate correctly:

"Looking up from underneath
Fractured moonlight on the sea
Reflections still look the same to me
As before I went under"

The fairy tale of the little mermaid starts just like this. Sirenette (in this case Flo) is a mermaid who lives in the bottom of the ocean, the underneath. When the Little Mermaid's turns 15 she can swim to the world outside the ocean, the land. When she ventures to the surface, sees a ship with a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a distance.
A great storm hits and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from nearly drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. The prince never sees the Little Mermaid.
The moonlight fractured on the sea would represent the love, and the ocean, the prince. The moonlight is fractured if you see under the water. So the mermaid cannot feels completely the love of the prince because love between mermaid and man is not possible.
Reflections look the same to her because even that her love is not possible, she still wants him and it doesn't make difference if it's out or under the water, the love looks the same to her.
"As before I went under" it's about the interaction between she and the prince. Summarizing this part it's how the mermaid sees the prince. When she saved him in the rocks, she fell in love and moonlight was clear. But when she goes under, the love is not complete, the moonlight is fractured, but even under the water, the love is the same to her.

Before the next part, let's see what happens to the mermaid:
"The grandmother of the mermaid explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than merfolks' 300 years, but humans have an eternal soul that lives on in Heaven. The Little Mermaid eventually visits the Sea Witch, who sells her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her tongue (as the Little Mermaid has the most intoxicating voice in the world). The Sea Witch warns, however, that once she becomes a human, she will never be able to return to the sea. Drinking the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her, yet when she recovers she will have two beautiful legs, and will be able to dance like no human has ever ddanced before. However, it will constantly feel like she is walking on sharp swords hard enough to make her bleed. In addition, she will only get a soul if she finds true love's kiss and if the prince loves her and marries her, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries another woman, the Little Mermaid will die brokenhearted and disintegrate into sea foam."
That's why in the video, each step releases water from her foot, it's painful. And that's why she is skiding, because if she cannot walk because of the pain, she can skid to ease the pain. However she cannot tell the prince she loves him 'cause she is mute.

Next part:
"And it's peaceful in the deep,
Cathedral where you cannot breathe,
No need to pray, no need to speak
Now I am under."

Now she is with the prince and the prince is attracted to her beauty. And she dance every night to the prince despite the pain. And when she cries, the prince thinks it's emotional, but it's not, it's pain.
But it's peaceful stay with him, in the deep. She cannot breathe because it's not her enviroment to live. And don't need to pray or speak, because she is mute. So anything bad that could happen from saying things to him, don't occur. But she can't prays to her love comes reality too. Now she's in love deeply with the prince.

"And it's breaking over me,
A thousand miles down to the sea bed,
Found the place to rest my head."

It's breaking over her, because what she's doing it's a sin, it's bad. The pain and the consequences of the love is breaking over her. And it's far far away from the surface, she is really deeply in love. And she now can rest in peace, because she found her passion, her other side of the orange.

"Never let me go, never let me go,
never let me go, never let me go"

It's her appealing. If he goes to love another girl she dies, so she is appeling for his love.

"And the arms of the ocean are carrying me,
And all this devotion was rushing out of me,
And the crashes are heaven, for a sinner like me,
The arms of the ocean deliver me."

And the prince is carrying her, he is answering to her love. And she can devote to him now that she can stay with him.
The price of the love is being paid. She feels the love is a heaven even she's a sinner feeling the ultimate sorrow.
She believes the prince it's part of her destiny and now that she found her destiny she can rest and love him peacefully.

"Though the pressure's hard to take,
It's the only way I can escape,
It seems a heavy choice to make,
Now I am under all."

The pressure represents her pain, because she cries when she dance to him, so it's very hard to resist, but it's the only way she can be with him. The choice of giving your life by his love it's crucial. So she choose to drink the potion to be with the prince. And now she is in love with him.

Repeating that it's breaking over her and bla bla...

The chorus again...

And now another part of the tale: the prince's father orders him to marry the neighbour king's daughter, but he refuses because she wants the mermaid. But when he sees the princess, he thinks it's the woman that rescued him from the drowning. So he loves her and the wedding is announced. The she sings:

"And it's over,
And I'm going under,
But I'm not giving up!
I'm just giving in."

It's over! She thinks of all that she has given up and of all the pain she has suffered. Her love by the man is not corresponded. And now she is going to die. But she don't give up because in the story, her sisters brings a knife to her, as if she slays the prince and put her feet under his blood, she will become a mermaid again, and live her life. But she cannot bring herself to kill the prince lying with her bride, so she'll just give in to the ocean, to the peace, to the heaven.

"Oh, slipping underneath.
Oh, so cold, but so sweet."

She is just getting back to the ocean, to the underneath, to her home. The death it's cold, but it's pleasurable.

"In the arms of the ocean, so sweet and so cold,
And all this devotion I never knew at all,
And the crashes are Heaven, for a sinner released,
And the arms of the ocean,
Deliver me."

Now that the prince turned away, after all that sweetness to her but cold for betraying her, she can't know that devotion of the not-corresponding love. She though she would marry but her devotion just faded out.
Now she's a sinner going to heaven. And as dawn breaks she throws herself into the sea. Her body dissolves into sea foam. She redempted her true love but in vain.
So in the video she dissolves and the man don't care.

And that's it. I hope you guys now understand the true interpretation of the lyrics and of the video. If you still do not understand, read the tale, it's beautiful.
=)