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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bleep!
08-07-2006

Rated 0 
i remember going to two of my grandparents' funerals when i was little, and both times when i was in the room where they put their bodies before the viewing, i thought i saw their chests heaving up and down. a while ago i went to a funeral of a childhood crush who was shot to death at 22. this song is the embodiment of that strange feeling i get when i think about funerals and death. kind of.

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aerimara
08-11-2006

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Heh... you can use christian imagery to evoke an emotion whether you be christian or not... but that's neither here nor there. Sufjan makes sense through most any prism, religious or otherwise. The same Lord can be anyone's god. No matter your religion (or lack thereof) you still may have to grapple with the hard questions of life; come to terms with a grevious loss.

When mourning a person you truly care about, it's common to look at their lives in a retrospective manner.... to take in the joy as well as the sorrow. You have to come to terms with that however you can.

As for symbolism in the song... strangely enough, for a few lines at least, a lot of the collective conclusions hadn't struck me until having read them... with the "And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth" line, I had more imagined all those breathing tubes and other junk that would have been necessary to be covering her face as he tried to kiss her...

The lines with them "in the morning at the top of the stairs" greatly remind me of times where I had my boyfriend (now husband) in the house at odd times, and then having to pull all SORTS of dastardly hijinks in order to cover it up (innocent tho the 'sleepover' was). Running outside, disheveled, at the right time, scared out of your wits. Ah... high school.

"on the floor at the great divide" after running across photographs that remind you of the person you're mourning... oh so familiar. Ever come across memorabilia that strongly reminds you of someone you miss? Ever break down over that? I still get all teary over photos of a best friend who died when I was 7 or 8. I trip across a photograph and am lost in reverie; how much worse it is when that person is on the brink of death or just passed over! Gut wrenching.

That darn cardinal tho makes perfect sense in its own simple way. Even if you expect someone's death, even if you're on that last death watch, there's the sense that they're still alive. They're still contactable. That finality hasn't yet hit.
No matter how long you have to make your peace with that person, nothing can prepare you for that final blow when the barrier goes up. Whether a real cardinal hit a real window at that precise moment, we'll never know. The fact is, that something has ended with a slam. The book has now ended and the best you can do is reread it, reminisce, pull out each and every moment to examine in detail.

And through it all... good is loving, god is kind, god will take. He will take and he will take, because that's life. Pain and rapture; that's life. The highs are that much sweeter when compared with the lows, but our lord is with us through both. You may love him even when angry with him; those deep nights will fall upon us many times through our lives. The test is to come through still loving him.

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Relapser
08-13-2006

Rated 0 
God doesn't exist is the point of this song.

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The_Biggest_Lie
08-14-2006

Rated 0 
I'm sorry, Relapser, but I think you couldn't be further from the truth.

The point of the song is that God does exist, but sometimes He doesn't make sense, and sometimes "He takes and He takes and He takes." But that doesn't mean He doesn't exist.

Beautiful song, by the way. Tears me up.

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tommac
08-22-2006

Rated 0 
he is not mad at God but instead struggling with accepting God's will and remaining strong in his fiath because even though he knows it is a loving God full of grace (All the glory when He took our place) he is stumbles with the loss of someone so dear to him (and He takes, and He takes, and He takes). it is the constant battle with the flesh that every believers goes through.

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tommac
08-22-2006

Rated 0 
he is not mad at God but instead struggling with accepting God's will and remaining strong in his fiath because even though he knows it is a loving God full of grace (All the glory when He took our place) he is stumbles with the loss of someone so dear to him (and He takes, and He takes, and He takes). it is the constant battle with the flesh that every believers goes through.

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hasbulelias
09-05-2006

Rated 0 
This song is about "how the hell can God take such an important life away from me", and the truth is that God is a bastard and He does whatever He wishes because, being the giver and taker of life, He sure as hell does whatever the fuck He wants. The gods are cruel. Theres also something very tragic and contradictory to the song. Is it about keeping one's faith? Not for me. For me personally he is exploring this whole idea of god, and bringing to light this contradictory relationship that man has with a godhead. How in logic's sense can a merciful god take a beautiful life away from a good man? What kind of god is this? In the end the last line is sufjan's reconcialition with his godhead, since it is only a god that takes and takes and takes (takes life) that would reaffirm his belief in a god. If his god didnt take life as cruelly as He does, then sufjan would have lost his faith (as believers have done). It is the belief that a godhead exists who both gives life and takes life that allows believers to preserve somekind of logical fallacy. Yet I believe Sufjan unintentionally (maybe intentionally) through this song has brought to light vividly through his feelings that dominate the song the tragic stupidity of this belief in a god that he once could not face in the morning. It is not a god that he couldnt face, but the fact that someone close to him was going to die. But sufjan's yearning to believe in a god is what makes the song so painful, so contradictory, so emotional and grand in its scale.

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peanutismint
09-14-2006

Rated 0 
I'd agree with many on this song, that it's about being angry with God for seeing fit to take somebody home, possibly before what we may think is 'their time', but also accepting that it's in His perfect will; that we can't ever fully understand why He chooses to let people die when they do but that He's God and so there must be a good reason for it, even if we can't see it.

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lynn9
09-14-2006

Rated 0 
I don't think that this is Sufjan's decree that God is a jerk out to screw with us. Questioning God's intentions or love for us is not a subject ignored in Christianity, But is one that is discussed in the Bible itself. Job was faithful man but soon lost his wealth, his home, his health and worst of all his children. The whole book of Job is Job venting/ yelling at God. Many of the Psalms are David crying to God for life's pain.

When listening to this song I am reminded of the intense bittersweet emotions I've experience when I've lost someone- They're gone and I loved them...But, I loved someone- what a blessing. But it hurts.

"All the glory that the Lord has made
And the complications when I see His face"

It is complicated. God's glory and existence isn't rejected in this song but expresses that yearning to understand it all. We're left with his current feeling-"and he takes and he takes and he takes" but given the previous verses we know that Sufjan believes in His glory.

(John 11:35)

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zachharrisment
10-01-2006

Rated 0 
Thank you Lord for all who see,
Mysteries in sad complexity.

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cbc21492
10-07-2006

Rated 0 
Golden Rod is a flower, 4h stone, im not quite sure. another plant?
idk
it is definetly him struggling with his faith, trying to be true to God but still questioning him.

All the glory when you ran outside
With your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied
And you told me not to follow you
^^ i think that that's just again referring to another set of complications.
like, she wants to stay with him, but she knows what will happen eventually (death) and its pretty much the battle that shes facing with both her illness and the guy.


On the floor at the great divide
With my shirt tucked in and my shoes untied
I am crying in the bathroom
^ now he's saying it, and i think the "great divide" is between faith and god, and the questions that have arisen because of this girl and how he's putting so much prayer into it, and all of his love, yet the power of god hasn't come to help him.



the rest is sort of a variation on that,
and then he says

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

when he took our place, its pretty much god taking her to heaven,

and then "but he took my shoulders and he shook my face." thats also like the line "and the cardinal hits the window"
its like gods wake up call to trust him, and that he does things for a purpose and idk im sorta going off on tangent..


the line "and he takes and he takes and he takes" is so beautiful.
i love this song.

wow, i sound like a jesus junkie, but surprisingly, im not catholic or anything. which is sort of coincidental considering i love sufjan.

anyhoo.
this song is beauty.

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cbc21492
10-07-2006

Rated 0 
"hasbulelias"
while i strongly disagree with you, i can see your point.
you seem very stubborn, be more open minded.
explore your faith. that doesnt necessarily mean going to church or sinnegauge, but dont think that "God" is associated with particular religions. God is whatever you make it.

did you realize that at one point you referred to god as "the gods".
??? huh.

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cbc21492
10-07-2006

Rated 0 
aerimara- brilliant.
youre very elliquent. im not.
kudos.

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ohlyndsey
10-27-2006

Rated 0 
I don't think Sufjan and his writing will ever cease to amaze me. I lost my mother to cancer, and while obviously this is talking about a different sort of love being lost, the way Sufjan writes about God and loss is unbelieveably true. The last line, "And He takes and He takes and He takes", gets me every single time. I can't listen to it without being drawn to tears.

I think to truly understand and feel the depth of this song, you sort of need to have experienced a loss of someone extremely close to you. And if you have any sort of relationship with God at all, it hits even closer to home.

Brilliant song, brilliant writing, brilliant man.

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ohlyndsey
10-27-2006

Rated 0 
I don't think Sufjan and his writing will ever cease to amaze me. I lost my mother to cancer, and while obviously this is talking about a different sort of love being lost, the way Sufjan writes about God and loss is unbelieveably true. The last line, "And He takes and He takes and He takes", gets me every single time. I can't listen to it without being drawn to tears.

I think to truly understand and feel the depth of this song, you sort of need to have experienced a loss of someone extremely close to you. And if you have any sort of relationship with God at all, it hits even closer to home.

Brilliant song, brilliant writing, brilliant man.

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comebackkid_
10-28-2006

Rated 0 
I fucking love this song so much.
It is my favourite Sufjan song ever.
It just fills me with so much emotion, absolutely amazing.
This girl did a brilliant version of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScRDjVEla3M&eurl=

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DaileyChandler
11-02-2006

Rated 0 
I knew a 17 year old girl who died of bone cancer March 1st, 2004... yea, it was a Monday. I know it isn't about her, but the song hits a little too close to home for me.

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trublu220
11-05-2006

Rated 0 
just sharing this for interests sake

in art Goldenrods are a symbol of "good fortune" as are four leaf clovers, the symbol for 4-H

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chloropheny
11-07-2006

Rated 0 
In my opinion, this song *does* have to do with God, like many of you have sad. It's questioning faith, asking "Why did this have to happen?" etc.

However, I think that more important than just the religious aspects of it, is a dedication this girl and a story about a tragic love. I don't think this song was written completely about faith, yadda yadda yadda. There's also a beautiful story being told.

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i.are.scientist
11-08-2006

Rated 0 
i haven't taken the time to file through all the meanings people have posted, so i'm sorry if this is repetitive but this is the imagery/meaning i get from the song.

two young teenagers who have essentially grown up together, thusly growing close. maybe the boy has been a little less "privleged" than the girl, but that has never been an issue that they couldn't look beyond, though maybe their parents couldn't say the same.

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i.are.scientist
11-08-2006

Rated 0 
fuck. i didn't get to finish! hahaha.

anyways. the girl has always been plagued with a certain illness and at this point in time where it's reaching it's peak, he's also finding her more beautiful and not just the little girl he grew up with. and he puts his hopes, prayers, and faith into God to heal her, but it ultimately is to no avail.

on and on and on. like everyone else, i think this is about not understanding God's doing, should there be one, or being temperamental with him/her/it.

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pr3ludetotragedy
12-03-2006

Rated 0 
as mentioned earlier, casimir pulaski day is march first.
the song follows a young couple's last few months. the woman has a terminal illness, the man is terrified to be without her.
to quote the notebook (sorry!) "science comes so far. then comes god." there is no cure, so the man puts his faith in god to help them.
their relationship gets stronger and stronger as she gets weaker. even with the prayer groups, hope, and the now seemingly wasted faith, she dies, leaving the man alone. he blames god for not coming through for him.
"and he takes and he takes and he takes"

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moldbyhand
12-06-2006

Rated 0 
SUCH a beautiful, delicate song and with words so painful. I love Sufjan.

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little bones
12-08-2006

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like everyone else.. i think this A LOT about sufjan's faith and the way he's "challenged" by it. i could write forever about this song, but i wont.

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think soup 227
12-10-2006

Rated 0 
i love this song. out of all the songs on "Illinois", i can relate to this one the most.

*the praying over someone, and nothing happening
*complicating a situation by kissing someone on the mouth
*loving someone who is somehow severely sick

this song is absolutely brilliant.
[ty]

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