I listened to "The Last Unicorn" repeatedly in the car last night. (Contemplating songs was one of the things that saved me from exploding of boredom during the endless traffic jam. All my mom and brother wanted to do was complain and rehash the details of the road.)
The version of the song I have ends with the lines:
"Then look into the clouds where through
The sky a path is torn.
Look and see her, how she sparkles;
It's the last unicorn."
Another version I've heard (perhaps on the movie?) ends,
"Look and see her, how she shoots;
It's the last unicorn."
The difference between these two lines changes the entire meaning of the song.
If she "sparkles," then the unicorn is a star. Now, the thing about stars is that they occupy a fixed place in the sky. Stars are things to navigate by; they hold their place in the sky; they know their course and their aim, and so forth. (Javert knew his astronomy.) It takes an incredibly long time for stars to die, and it's a pretty safe bet that any given star we look up at tonight will be there tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, for the rest of our lives. To say that the last unicorn is a star implies that she will always be there when we need her; she will not leave us; we need not grieve any loss. Therefore, we need not worry that she is the last; there will always be unicorns. It's a comforting line, and by ending with it the song means: Even if the beauty of the world seems to be passing away, you will always be able to look, at least, to the unicorn.
But if the unicorn "shoots," then she is a shooting star-- a meteor. As meteors approach the earth, most of them burn up in the atmosphere, and that's what makes the bright flash. If this is the case, then the song is about the dying of the last unicorn-- look, and don't miss, her blaze of final glory. "I'm alive" she says for the moment, but the music dies off after that line. Then she's gone, along with the rest of the dying glory mentioned in the song. By ending with this line, the song becomes an elegy to the last flourish of beauty dying away.
Objectively, I prefer the latter version for its poignancy. It's not that I'm a bitter cynic who's determined to see the worst in things and wants to illustrate how crappy the world is; it's just that the darkest songs often have the most emotion, the most power. If the song is comforting, then it's saying "There, there, don't feel sad; it's okay." But if the song is an elegy, then it's saying, "Go ahead and feel sad-- so long as you feel something; don't look away, but see her in her final splendid blaze." I want songs (and other art) to evoke the maximum possible emotion; that's why I listen to them at all. Of course I prefer the stronger version, even if it's sadder and not so comforting or full of hope.
(...of course, if I do what I always do and start relating the songs to stories I know and personal mythology, I almost have to prefer "sparkles," because a) it could reference the 108 Stars of Suikoden and b) the idea of a meteor being the last unicorn makes me snicker into my sleeve. But that's only when I put the song into the artificial context of my own personal symbolic structure.)