Lyrics for Casimir Pulaski Day as interpreted by downhillracer

Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics
Goldenrod and the 4H stone
The things I brought you
When I found out you had cancer of the bone

Your father cried on the telephone
And he drove his car into the Navy yard
Just to prove that he was sorry

In the morning, through the window shade
When the light pressed up against your shoulderblade
I could see what you were reading

All the glory that the Lord has made
And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth

Tuesday night at the Bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens

I remember at Michael's house
In the living room when you kissed my neck
And I almost touched your blouse

In the morning at the top of the stairs
When your father found out what we did that night
And you told me you were scared

All the glory when you ran outside
With your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied
And you told me not to follow you

Sunday night when I cleaned the house
I found the card where you wrote it out
With the pictures of you mother

On the floor at the great divide
With my shirt tucked in and my shoes untied
I am crying in the bathroom

In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window

In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March, on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing

All the glory that the Lord has made
And the complications when I see His face
In the morning in the window

All the glory when He took our place
But He took my shoulders and He shook my face
And He takes and He takes and He takes

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stupid_name
05-01-2006

Rated 0 
I didn't read through all the comments, so I probably have nothing new to add, but anyhow:

1) This song is deep. Questioning God. "he takes and he takes and he takes." Amazing. Great.

2) This song always makes me cry.

3) I cry especially a lot on this verse: "In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March, on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing"
-How everyone else can go about their day outside and enjoy the holiday, the mundane respite from work that we get here in Illinois for some Polish general nobody's ever heard of in any context OTHER than Casmir Pulaski Day, while the girl dies in the hospital.

4) This is a folk song, really. How many singers could put together an album like this including a folk song: the same melody, over and over again, different words in each verse, essentially telling a story. Yep, it's a folk song, alright.

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BlakeWolfsSN
05-05-2006

Rated 0 
As others have posted, Casimir Pulaski Day is celebrated in Illinois during the first Monday March.

In the song, Sufjan sings, "In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March, on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing."

This implies that he thought he saw her breathing, after her death, on a Monday, March 1st, but does not limit the possibility of her dying on a Monday, March 1st, and his thinking she was breathing on that same day.

According to previous calendars, the last Monday, March 1sts were in 2004, 1999, and 1993.

According to Wikipedia, "Stevens spent the second half of 2004 researching and writing material for (Illinois)."

This all means that the song, Casimir Pulaski Day, is about the girl dying near a March 1st, and in my mind, most likely in 2004. This explains the holiday reference, the title of the song, and provides some other possible background information on the song.

I have read through the posts, and have not seen these conclusions elsewhere, and found them relevant to the song.

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BlakeWolfsSN
05-05-2006

Rated 0 
Soon after posting the precious post, I got out my album of Illinois on vinyl. There are two cardinals (and more if I have missed any) throughout the album's artwork. I would love to hear other comments on the profound symbolism of the cardinal, esp. it being prominent in the album's artwork. I believe the cardinal to represent the struggles of life, our inability to be in control, our flying and looking forward, yet being slammed with some of life's surprises, that we have no control over, because he takes and takes and takes. And all the while He is watching us from the other side of the window. Either that, or he sees the Lord's face as dawn "in the morning in the window".

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BlakeWolfsSN
05-05-2006

Rated 0 
Oh my goodness. I did mean "previous" as opposed to "precious" in the previous post. I never knew how similar the two were. Previous, precious, previous, precious, she was previously precious.

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knitting
05-07-2006

Rated 0 
i was confused about the cardinals as well. they are the state bird of wisconsin, so i got a bit confused when i hear about them in illinois, because i usually associate them with wisconsin.

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cp8climb
05-07-2006

Rated 0 
I am not religious at all, but I still think that ss has some of the best lyrics that I have heard of any artist. This song is so beautiful lyrically and musically..

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tsfuckingeliot
05-08-2006

Rated -1 
they\'re not that good.

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imoveritfosho
05-08-2006

Rated 0 
u are an idiot tselliot...

period.

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mrg873
05-12-2006

Rated 0 
i don't know if anyone finds this relevant, but the cardinal is the illinois state bird...just figured i'd let someone analyze that one.

i'm not going to repeat everything that's been said, but i just love this song. a friend of mine died in november, and while it wasn't expected, there's still so much i can relate to in this song.

someone mentioned a while back about how when someone passes away the living remember a bunch of little random, insignificant details. it's something i know emily dickinson has written about as well. but it's so true. i saw this song as the narrator looking back on all the years he knew this girl (i'm guessing it's a girl) and just kind of watching all these moments run through his head, coming up to her death in the present at the end. i always saw the first of march as the day of her funeral. i don't really have anything profound to say though, that hasn't been said before.

i just can't believe how much there is to say about this. there are so few songs that a person can listen to intelligently and actually have an opportunity to reflect on, but no matter what song it is, whenever i listen to sufjan, i don't stop thinking about the lyrics for hours afterwards.

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imaginaryordinary
05-17-2006

Rated 0 
I think that the line "and he takes and he takes and he takes..." refers to the fact that while Jesus took his loved one away from him, he also takes away his sins.

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molarbear
05-29-2006

Rated 0 
sooooo beautiful. i listened to this on the drive from reno to the san francisco bay area after visiting my grandpa, who is dying of cancer. it made me cry, but it also made me feel peaceful

"And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth"

to me, that says that the girl who has cancer doesn't need to be falling in love when she is near death.

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sweetnlow866
05-31-2006

Rated 0 
I live in Illinois, and the cardinal is prevelant everywhere in the area I live in. Although it doesn't seem connected, the St. Louis Cardinals perhaps? I live maybe 30 minutes from St. Louis and have grown up associating cardinals with the area I live in. Also, my grandpa is a bird watcher and enjoys visiting us because the bird itself is so prevelant in Illinois.

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misslove
06-03-2006

Rated 0 
This song seems to make everyone cry. I heard it for the first time about a month ago. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it until the 3rd or 4th listen. After that I lost it. March 31st a good friend of mine died of bone cancer. She was 18. it hits me so hard that something could be put so beautifully about such a terrible thing. It's an incredibly moving song.

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TriColour
06-06-2006

Rated 0 
As some others have said, although Sufjan tends to put religious themes into his music, this song seems to be dealing with a faltering in the narrator's faith after losing someone he loves so completely. I think it is the love in this song that makes it so painfully beautiful or beautifully painful. The love between these two people is so pure and innocent and young that the fact that one of them is even capable of dying is horrifying to think of. This song is heart-wrenching and so lovely.

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HeathroBonk
06-16-2006

Rated 0 
After God has taken away this girl the guy is so in love with he begins to question his faith.
"All the glory when He took our place
But He took my shoulders and He shook my face
And He takes and He takes and He takes"
He doesnt see how after "taking our place" God continues to take our loved ones away. After that the music slow builds and represents he faith being restored and reaffirmed.

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bluechair07
06-23-2006

Rated 0 
Do you think the cardinal is a bird or a person?

Cardinal as in a member of the catholic clergy. He could be hitting the window with his hand or something.

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jumbo91078
06-25-2006

Rated 0 
I have lived in Central Illinois for 27 years. There is an old wives tale around here about a bird hitting the window. If a bird hits the window, it means that someone close to you has died. I am not sure about the signifigance of the cardinal other than it being the state bird of Illinois.

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zachharrisment
06-26-2006

Rated 0 
I've definitly heard the tale bit about a bird hiting a window before.

Way back on page 1, thexdropoff said it very well. This song is the question, "Why?" It is a prayer asking God, "Why did they have to die?" Or even further, "I know that you have a plan here Lord, but I don't see what it is!"

We don't understand God. We could ever hope to see through the eyes of a diety when we can barely step into other people's shoes. Admiting that we can't handle this world on our own is the key to salvation. We cannot depend on our selves, only on Christ.

If you like Sufjan Stevens, check out the books ~The Problem with Pain~ and ~A Grief Observed~ both written by C.S. Lewis. He writes books in a similar way to how Stevens writes music.

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copperboom
06-27-2006

Rated 0 
I agree with zacharrisment. Even furthur I think that the narrator has a strong faith, but is sort of thiking about the balence between the glory that the lord has made (this beautiful women, this loving relationship) and complication we could do without (fear, loss, doubt) the things that come up when we think about death and when we have to go on without a person we love.

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laurennicole
07-13-2006

Rated 0 
I see it in many ways. Weather sufjan meant it only one way, i can't help but see the positive and negetive of this song. To me it seems as though he is thanking God, but at the same time he doesn't understand. I think overall it's a positive song though. "and he takes, and he takes and he takes" referring to the lord carrying his burdens for him.

It can either be a positive song to me or a negetive.

Either way, it is deeply spiritual.
Each time i listen i find something else, either of sufjans, or my experiences in life.

& something more.

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souljuice
07-17-2006

Rated 0 
totally unbeleiveable song
i lisen to it over and over and over again
sufjan you mastermind.
the simple beat pulls me in everytime.

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sexyduck
07-24-2006

Rated 0 
I was suprised by how many people commented on this song. After I first heard this song I couldn't stop listening to it. It's really moving, and beautiful. I can relate to a lot of the feeling of loss he portrays in this song. "Oh the glory, when you ran outside, with your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied" is a perfect visual for this song, I can imagine it happening, and you can almost feel all the sadness that'd attached to this song.

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thefiddlehacks
07-25-2006

Rated 0 
i agree with Variable up there, this song is even more powerful when you can relate to it -- my grandmother actually did die of cancer, and as a wierd coincidence i happened to be listening to this song as she did (she lived in illinois - another little coincidence). needless to say it made this song a little more personal to me.

i also agree that this song is not a christian song, nor is sufjan a christian writer. he simply writes about things he feels or thinks about. this song is a little short of "praise" for God, describing how God not only ignores us, but afterwards keeps taking away until we feel entirely helpless.

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yaywhoowee
08-04-2006

Rated 0 
how can sufjan not be a christian writer? how can you explain 'to be alone with you' ?? or 'for the widows in paradise..' ??

sure not all his songs are about God... but i believe that a great writer like himself must be influenced by God

anyway my thoughts on this song:

it's very beautiful, and poetic but i find it really hard to listen to. the reason why is because of this part:

"Tuesday night at the Bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens"

if this is a true story, i wonder how they prayed for her... did they ask God to heal her? or did they speak healing over her? 1 peter 2:24 says that by His (Jesus) stripes we WERE healed. i believe that Jesus can't really do anything when we beg Him to heal someone because he already did when he died on the cross...

it's sort of like asking someone to put up dry wall in your house... when they've already done so.. get it?

besides that line though, the song is gorgeous

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jordand3
08-06-2006

Rated 0 
While lyrically, this song is so heart-breaking, the music is so uplifting (especially the crescendo ending). The ending makes me think Stevens' faith has been tested, he's confused and depressed, but he knows brighter days await him.

The fact that this is the 100th post is proof of this little indie song's incredible power. Here's to an amazing songwriter.

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