Death is usually a heavy, looming presence in music. It's the end. The curtain call. But for Andrew Hozier-Byrne, death is just a weird, dirt-covered doorway to something else entirely. If you’ve spent any time dissecting the first time hozier lyrics, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It isn’t just a breakup song. It’s a literal and metaphorical exhumation.
It’s about being buried and then being dug back up.
When Unreal Unearth dropped in 2023, fans were already braced for the Dante’s Inferno references. We knew we were going through the circles of hell. "First Time" sits firmly in the Ninth Circle: Limbo. But it’s a version of Limbo that feels surprisingly like a rainy Dublin afternoon or a cold hospital room. It’s grounded. It’s visceral. It’s remarkably human for a song that starts with the protagonist being a corpse.
The Brutal Reality of the First Time Hozier Lyrics
The song opens with a line that honestly stops you in your tracks: "Infant eyesight, hectic and blue." It’s disorienting. You’re being born. Or maybe you’re waking up after a long sleep. But then the perspective shifts, and suddenly we aren’t in a nursery. We’re in the ground.
Hozier sings about being "first-time called" by a lover. He describes himself as a "soul being led to the body." It’s an inversion of the usual spiritual trope where the soul leaves the body at death. Here, the love—or the attention of this specific person—is so powerful it drags a ghost back into the flesh.
It’s heavy stuff.
The heart of the song lies in that repetitive, almost hypnotic refrain about the "first time." Most songwriters use that phrase to talk about a first kiss or a first date. Hozier? He uses it to describe the first time he heard his name being called by this person. He says it was the first time he "died."
Wait, what?
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In Hozier-speak, dying isn't necessarily bad. It’s an end of an era. It’s the shedding of the old self. Every time this person says his name, the person he was a second ago ceases to exist. He is constantly being reborn and subsequently "killed" by the weight of being known by someone else.
Why the "Floral" Metaphor Matters
One of the most striking parts of the first time hozier lyrics is the mention of "the floral arrangements."
"Whatever can be reformed, let it be reformed / In the floral arrangements of your memory."
In a literal sense, he’s talking about the flowers at a funeral. But he’s also talking about how we curate our memories of people. When we love someone, we don’t remember them exactly as they were. We arrange our memories like a bouquet. We trim the thorns. We put the bright colors in the front. He’s pleading with this person to remember him, even if that version of him is a "reformed" or edited version of the truth.
He mentions being "perplexed by the flowers." This is a callback to the idea of being a "late bloomer" or perhaps someone who didn't expect to be celebrated while still alive. It’s a bit meta, honestly. Hozier has always had this "bog man" persona—someone deeply connected to the earth and the past—and here he is, literally rising from the dirt to see what people have left for him.
The Dante Connection: Limbo and Life
If you’re tracking the Inferno structure of the album, "First Time" represents the transition into Limbo. In Dante's poem, Limbo is for those who weren't necessarily "bad," but they lacked something—faith, or a connection to the divine.
In this song, that lack is filled by the lover.
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The "limbo" here is the space between being a person and being a memory. Hozier explores the idea that we only truly exist when we are being perceived by someone else. It’s a terrifying thought. If the person who calls your name stops calling it, do you just... sink back into the mud?
The song gets darker as it goes. He mentions the "cailleach," a divine hag or creator figure from Gaelic mythology. This isn't just a love song; it’s a mythic cycle. The cailleach is associated with winter and transformation. By bringing her into the first time hozier lyrics, he’s grounding the song in Irish folklore. It suggests that this cycle of being "called" and "dying" is as old as the hills. It's seasonal. It's inevitable.
Decoding the "Big Glass" and the "View"
There’s a section in the middle of the song that feels a bit more modern, a bit more "real world." He talks about looking through a "big glass."
Is it a window? A screen? A lens?
Whatever it is, it represents the barrier between the subject and the world. He’s observing. He’s waiting for that "first time" feeling to strike again. But there’s a weariness to it. You can only be "born again" so many times before the novelty wears off.
Hozier uses a lot of "C" sounds in this track—"called," "cailleach," "cold," "clutched." It creates a percussive, sharp feeling that contrasts with the smooth, soulful melody. It feels like someone trying to speak while shivering. It’s brilliant production that matches the lyrical content perfectly.
The Misconception of the "Sweet" Love Song
A lot of people hear the melody of "First Time" and think it’s a wedding song.
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Please don't play this at your wedding without reading the lyrics first.
Unless you want your wedding to be about the existential dread of being a ghost who is only temporarily reanimated by the sound of your spouse’s voice. I mean, maybe that’s your vibe. No judgment. But it’s not "sweet" in the traditional sense. It’s desperate. It’s a song about someone who feels like "a soul being led to the body" against their will, or at least with a great deal of confusion.
It’s also a song about the ending of a relationship. The final verses shift into a past-tense melancholy. The "first time" is over. The "dying" has happened, but the "rebirth" isn't coming this time. He’s left with the "floral arrangements"—the memories—and the realization that he is no longer being "called."
Actionable Insights for Fans and Analysts
When you're diving into Hozier's discography, especially a track as layered as this one, it helps to have a roadmap. To truly appreciate the first time hozier lyrics, you have to look beyond the surface level of a "breakup song."
- Listen for the Gaelic influence: Research the Cailleach. Understanding her role as a goddess of the winter and transformation changes the entire meaning of the bridge.
- Track the "Name" motif: Hozier often writes about the power of names (think "Nina Cried Power" or "Tell It To My Heart"). In this song, the name is the catalyst for existence itself.
- Compare to "De Selby (Part 1)": Both songs deal with the blurring of boundaries between the self and the environment. "First Time" is the emotional fallout of that blurring.
- Look at the meter: Hozier uses a swinging, almost waltz-like rhythm here. It mimics the "hectic" heartbeat of a newborn or someone hyperventilating. It's intentional.
The brilliance of Hozier is that he makes you feel like you're reading a dusty old book in a library while simultaneously feeling like you're bleeding out in a modern-day heartbreak. He bridges the gap. "First Time" is the perfect example of that. It’s ancient and it’s right now.
If you want to understand the full scope of Unreal Unearth, you have to sit with this track. You have to let it "bury" you a little bit. Only then can you appreciate what it feels like to be called back to the surface.
Next Steps for Deep Listening:
Listen to the song with high-quality headphones and focus specifically on the bass line. It acts as the "heartbeat" Hozier refers to in the lyrics. After that, read the Ninth Circle of Dante’s Inferno—specifically the parts regarding the "limbo" of the unbaptized—and see how many parallels you can find in the themes of being "almost" but not "quite" alive. Finally, look up the live acoustic versions of this track; the lack of studio production highlights the vulnerability of the "infant eyesight" metaphor in a way the album version sometimes masks.