First of all, let's just say that Bono hit a home run with these lyrics. Nothing complicated, almost a simple chant or a dirge but so evocative.
I had a close friend who wrote lyrics in a similar stream of consciousness way, and the funny thing was that I learned it was useless to ask him what they meant. His intended meaning was always different to what I thought and his explanations were not very satisfying. So keep in mind that it's poetry- the meaning is the experience you have in hearing it. These are ideas that the song suggests to me as I listen.
'Don't want to see' suggests willful blindness. The relationship is not working and he doesn't want to face it, and asks to take refuge in sexual intimacy to cover the holes. 'Wrap the night around me' suggest sex, concealment, protection, tenderness and deception all in one. What a line!
Love made complete- their love in its fullest form is like this scene of industrial alienation and unravelling. It can't be healed because loneliness and disintegration are its fundamental nature.
Cold steel- a nice combination of impending doom and phallic imagery. The mechanical images of clockworks and steel contrast with the fingers and the squeezing, making them even more intimate. Cold steel/squeeze the handle? Both sexy and scary. This verse kind of makes me blush, it's so intimate. Plus, 'blow out the candle' suggests snuff, where sex equals death. Yikes.
Drowning in a deep well- if the last verse has masculine imagery, this has feminine. Wells are typically feminine because... well, you can guess; wet tunnel with a secret at the end and all. But it's not a nice secret. This well is a scary, lonely place with no way out. He starts out the song asking for sexual intimacy, but when they share it they find only entrapment and death.
Dangerous idea- we've had a metaphorical representation of the alienation of male and female. The little death refers to the sexual relationship as both orgasmic and emotionally killing them. They have promised to love each other and find that their love is essentially harmful. It's a dangerous idea that the most loving thing to do might be to abandon each other.
Take the money- cut your losses, take the money and run. A cold attitude juxtaposed with the endearment Honey suggests that they still feel tenderness for each other, but they have reached a dead end and need to pull the plug. They are just leading each other further into this dark and destructive place, and need to abandon each other to make it out.
Again, I look think these lyrics are more impressionistic, meant to convey an emotional response rather than provide a script of what it means. But I hope maybe these thoughts help you to enjoy it more.
