Alright so I decided to analyze "Let Her Go" by Passenger, a song that I certainly listen to plenty (something which has made my sister complain just a couple times):
Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snowOnly know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling lowOnly hate the road when you’re missin' homeOnly know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go
Staring at the bottom of your glassHoping one day you'll make a dream lastBut dreams come slow and they go so fast
You see her when you close your eyesMaybe one day you'll understand whyEverything you touch surely dies
But you only need the light when it's burning lowOnly miss the sun when it starts to snowOnly know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling lowOnly hate the road when you're missin' homeOnly know you love her when you let her go
Staring at the ceiling in the darkSame old empty feeling in your heart'Cause love comes slow and it goes so fast
Well you see her when you fall asleepBut never to touch and never to keep'Cause you loved her too much
And you dived too deep
Well you only need the light when it's burning lowOnly miss the sun when it starts to snowOnly know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling lowOnly hate the road when you're missin' homeOnly know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go (oh, oh, ooh, oh no)And you let her go (oh, oh, ooh, oh no)Will you let her go?
[repeat chorus a couple times]
And you let her go
The thing that jumps out at me the most is the repetition - not of a specific phrase, but the same formula, really. The first three lines all follow the same pattern; all of these lines refer to only missing something when it starts to fade or leave, which is, of course, a very central idea to the song. The entire song revolves around the idea that you don't miss something until it's not there anymore, like what you're used to. In this case the use of imagery is particularly helpful in pointing this out, with the same first few lines, with "only need the light when it's burning low" and "only miss the sun when it starts to snow" being two images that illustrate the idea of missing something only after it's gone. In this case, the idea of a lover only being really and truly missed when they're no longer yours (when you "let her go") is likened to a candle burning out - you don't think about it until the light is gone and you need it - and you take the sun as a given until the world is constantly shrouded in clouds and cold.
One other, more straightforward, case of repetition is with the repetition of "only," which is only broken once the phrase "and you let her go" is introduced. Before that the lines all begin with "only" and set up a one of the aforementioned cases where you don't realize you miss something until you don't have it anymore. This does more to set up the fact that he does love her, though; the line "and you let her go" follows after "only know you love her when you let her go" tells you that, yeah, this dude loved whoever he is singing about, and only just now is realizing it. There's also a sense of hopelessness to his words, like this was always going to happen, with the lines "maybe one day you'll understand why/everything you touch surely dies," which probably has more to do with him personally but seems to refer to this as something that was bound to happen, like the moment love started that it was destined to leave him.
Honorary mention goes to the songs I thought about analyzing and then didn't, for whatever reason: "Something I Need" by OneRepublic, "You Could Be Happy" by Snow Patrol, "Another Love" by Tom Odell, and "All I Want" by Kodaline
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