"Like an Angel" lyrics - what do they mean?

Long awaited darkness falls
Casting shadows on the walls
In the twilight hour I am alone
Sitting near the fireplace, dying embers warm my face
In this peaceful solitude
All the outside world subdued
Everything comes back to me again
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

Half awake and half in dreams
Seeing long forgotten scenes
So the present runs into the past
Now and then become entwined, playing games within my mind
Like the embers as they die
Love was one prolonged good-bye
And it all comes back to me tonight
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

I close my eyes
And my twilight images go by
All too soon
Like an angel passing through my room

"Like An Angel Passing Through My Room", despite being arguably one of ABBA's more unusual (and hardly upbeat) recordings, has always been a favourite among the fans.  But what exactly do the lyrics mean?  For a long time, I couldn't figure it out, but with the help of an old friend of mine, Luke Rogers, some possible light has been shed on these lyrics.

Basically, the theory is that the song could possibly be about somebody dying, and in their final moments of life.  From the start "Long awaited darkness falls" could refer to this "long awaited darkness" as being the moment of death.  "Casting shadows on the walls" is possible a reference to the atmosphere around the person also preparing to shut down. 

"In the twilight hour I am alone" - is perhaps a more obvious hint yet, as the words "twilight hour" are often used to describe the last period of someone's life.  The following lyrics of the first verse simply clarify the position of the person in the song, that s/he is alone, and by a fireplace.  "Everything comes back to be again" could be a reference to how so often in an older person's life, they are pondering, and recalling memories from their past, how life often basically flashes before one's eyes before dying.

"Half awake and half in dream" could be a reference to the fact that the person is not totally asleep but not totally awake either, in the final moments of someone's life this is often common - they are alternating between the conscious world and the unconscious.  "Seeing long forgotten scences, so the present runs into the past" is a further reference to the person's flashbacks and how by now the present and the past both seem to run together, and there is no clear way of differentiating the two.  "Now and then become entwined, playing games within my mind" simply further clarifies this.

"Like the embers as they die, love was one prolonged goodbye" is the saddest part of the song.  This refers to, I believe, the idea that love, being such an important aspect of one's life, is now a concept that the person is going to be parted from forever.  The ultimate inevitability of life is something we all face and nothing can avoid it in the end.  The person is comparing the dying feeling of love and connection with others around them fading forever, just like the embers in the fireplace that are fizzling out.  Very sad, this lyric, and typical of many of their later darker songs.

"I close my eyes, and my twilight images go by" is possibly a reference to the person closing their eyes for the last time preparing to leave the world as their flashbacks once again go by.  "All too soon, like an angel passing through my room", refers to the fact that perhaps this moment is happening too soon and that the person did not really want to die.  Then the angel passes through the person's room and they leave.  So sad.

I would like to thank my friend Luke Rogers for enlightening me to this possible theory, as it is one way for me to make the lyrics of this song much more easy to understand.  We may never know exactly what these songs mean, but sometimes the mystery is what makes these songs just so much more enlightening, and intriguing.