also you could draw meaning from the word choice wasp. as in W.A.S.P...just a thought.

i think this song could be about someone being gay. the wasp is the perhaps the conservative christian setting. the wasp on his wall (constant reminder), not being able to sleep (thinking about it), kissing the boy and seeing the wasp on his arm (letting it happen, then being reminded of the intolerance), the boy running away (perhaps the narrator could not fully be himself and the boy god frustrated and ran away). im not saying this is the intention or that sufjans gay, but this is what comes to my mind when i listen.

i like littlevisigoth's interpretation too

What's up with all these "girl narrator" comments? Sorry to burst out your bubble but guys use leg warmers and write in cursive too. This is the only song where I've read people think the narrator is a girl, I guess it's just because the people it kisses it's another guy. You people are in denial, the meaning is kinda so obvious. But it's ok, I guess we are all free to think whatever we want about it.

Okay, so I've read through A LOT of these posts, trying to piece everything together and this is what I've come up with. I'm going to go through the scenario as if the narrator is female singing about a non-brother best friend but the song was written in such a way as to be intentionally ambiguous. The one hint we've been given from Sufjan himself is that it was "inspired" by the wasp that him and his brother made up, so that is in here too. Here goes...

Girl sees wasp while writing in bed, her mind is in an imaginative state. She remembers...

Her and her male best friend as youth, perhaps 15 years old, head out to go swimming at the Palisades Park in Savanna, Illinois (she takes her brother's awesome red hat with her). They have been innocent childhood friends as long as they can remember and have never brought up the fact that they are of the opposite sex. Her friend is bit by a wasp and it makes him cry (he's embarrassed so he hides his face in his hands). She wants to tease him and make him feel better so she goes up and gives him a kiss (like she is pretending he's a cry-baby and she's kissing his booboo better) and then they both suddenly realize what has happened. They can never be innocent little buddies again because she is in love with him romantically! (Hence the harm that wasn't meant by the teasing) The wasp on the arm gives this image of the pair together, frozen, as the enormity of what has happened dawns on them. Then it spins out to a much wider view. They are in love! They are in love! Wow the world is amazing! It's all so beautiful! We are so thankful we discovered this (Hallelu!).
"How do I explain how it happened?" She wonders. Then there's a pinpoint of memory: from backseat of car, sees him fall asleep, he is so beautiful and peaceful. But for all her powers and effort she can't explain the feeling. Like being at the top of a tall tower over a huge expanse of field, perhaps? Well, the friend is gone but (and this is not a sad part of the song) now she has a something different. She's a got a person she loves, despite all fights and things from the past, and she can tell him because it's all out now, thanks to the terrible power of that wasp sting.

Sufjan Stevens actually says what this song is based on, just before performing it on the tv-show Austin City Limits.

He says that his parents used to send him to summer camps when he was a kid, and on one camp,
he met a boy who he became close friends with. During a long hiking trip where they had to sleep in tents and where it was very cold, Sufjan and his friend got a way from the rest of the group, where they saw an enourmus whasp, and to get away from it, they hid out in a cave for a couple of days, before returning to the camp. Fear of whasps, and most things with wings, would haunt them for the rest of the summer camp.

So, that's what Sufjan Stevens explains about the song, but it doesn't explain it all, e.g. he doesn't say anything about his friend being bit in the story.

There are many good interpretations of the song on here and iv made mine by taking parts of all of yours.
Its obviously him looking back on a memory. The memory is of him and his brother (his brother is also his best friend) when they were much younger. There wasnt much of an incident only what is said in the song, his best friend(brother) is bit on the shoulder, which is a big deal for a young child. and he "teased him" they laughed together. and when it say "touching his back with my arm i kiss him" i think he means he kisses him with his hand. as a touch of comfort to have to same impact as a mothers kiss. and they were in love with each other as young children can be in love with a stranger and they can love them unconditionally one day then not the next. near the end of the song is him remembering how they grew up and grew apart but even though he left and they had their differences, lying there in his bed he still loved and missed his brother.

this song is beautiful and has many meanings changing for everyone who hears it. thats what makes sufjan so amazing he dosnt tell you what to feel but he lets you feel it all.

To me, it's sort of...indicating the amount of reverence one can truly have for such simple things they encounter in life.

whether it's about christ and judas' relationship or just a gay relationship, i'm not really bothered, this song is a beautiful song, i love it. i was watching a video of sufjan live on youtube, and he told one of his stories before it, and this song is about him and his friend who went swimming, came out of the water and were chased by a wasp, so they ran to the tent and i forgot the rest. i'm sure someone else can back me up on this.

Yes, there is a lot of Christian imagery/illusion in this song, but I don't think the actual song is about Christ or being a Christian.

I think that imagery is used to convey the depth of hurt/love/faith/betrayal that happened in this important *human* relationship. I do think it's about a boy kissing his male best friend, and how that his changing (unrequited) feelings for that friend eventually ruin their friendship, and how it affects him deeply even years later. Whether it's fictional or autobiographical is neither here nor there.

I think it's left ambiguous for a reason--that, to me, speaks to how beautifully crafted this song is. It's moving and heartbreaking, and the feelings the song evokes go way beyond the literal story that's being told. Everyone has had an important childhood relationship that affects them even in adulthood. First love can be both exceptionally beautiful and lovely as well as heartbreaking and traumatic. Do we ever really get over that? All of these things, like this song, span the width and bredth of emotion--positive and negative, something to be praised and cursed, something elevated and stinging, something to look back on with both affection and regret. All nit-picky details aside, Stevens, I think, made his point very clear--this song does exactly what it's supposed to do.

I think the titular wasp serves as a symbol of the hurt/danger that will come as a result of the shifting of feelings, irrevocably changing and ending the friendship.

“… my best friend is bit seven times”

is a reference to the seven wounds of Christ.

“… we swim in the palisades/I come out wearing my brother’s red hat”

This is symbolic of baptism. After being baptized, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Then there’s the fairly obvious reference in

“Trusting things beyond mistake! Hallelu-
We were in love! We were in love!
Palisades! Palisades!
I can wait. I can wait!
Lamb of God we sound the horn!
Hallelujah!
To us your ghost is born!
Hallelu-”

The song is talking in very intimate terms of the relationship Christians share with Christ. Each piece of the song matches up perfectly in allegory to most concepts of His relationship.

Once you take the interpretation of Christ, everything else in the song comes to play. The whole part about touching, which leads to kissing, which leads to wasp, can clearly be interpreted as a metaphor for Judas.

This song is so emotionally affecting. The transition from the string and trumpet section highlight this lyric which gives me chills and almost chokes me up: "I can't explain the state that I'm in/The state of my heart/He was my best friend." The subsequent lyrics are equally powerful--"Oh admiration in falling alseep," "we swaggered and swayed," "I can tell you the telling gets old," "I can tell you the day we were born," "My friend is gone/He ran away/I can tell you/I love him each day," "Though we have sparred, wrestled, and raged/I can tell you/I love him each day."
Amazing and beautiful. I think Sufjan purposefully uses ambiguity to emphasize the very familiar ambiguity that young men have between strong feelings of affection for or romantic love for another male friend. The line isn't always clear and I think that is reflected. So I'm in the camp that thinks Sufjan has achieved exactly what he intended by not explicitly defining the relationship as homo or heterosexual.
I imagine hearing this song after my best (male) friend has died and I'm at his funeral..and it chokes me up.

deep in the tower might be a metaphor reffering to the sexual act of deep throating someones penis.

huh, well might as well throw out my perspective...

Thinking outrageously, I write in cursive
(suggests a female character writing in her diary after an event just had taken place)
I hide in my bed with the lights on the floor
(feelings of shame)
Wearing three layers of coats and leg warmers
(suggests female again, but not nesseciarly, if you were cold enough to wear 3 coats, and were male, you would definitely steal your sister's legwarmers, trust me)
I see my own breath on the face of the door
(just to show how cold it is)
Oh, I am not quite sleeping
Oh, I am fast in bed
(pretending to be asleep, like kids to with Santa Clause LOL)
There on the wall in the bedroom creeping
I see a wasp with her wings outstretched
(wasp can be a metaphor for many things, as stated in the intepretations already said, if you take the literal sense, the seeing of the wasp could trigger memories of the event that had just happen, or events involving the event that had just happened)

North of Savanna we swim in the Palisades
(change in time follows?)
I come out wearing my brother's red hat
(I think this signals that the narrator is not refering to his/her brother)
There on his shoulder my best friend is bit seven times
He runs washing his face in his hands
(crying)

Oh, how I meant to tease him
(teased him about what? the wasp bites? the bestfriend crying? This hints that the narrator is male)
Oh, how I meant no harm
(literal)
Touching his back with my hand, I kiss him
(it's perfectly normal for a kid to be inlove with his bestfriend, you don't get sexual attractions tell you hit puberty, don't interpret this lewdly, they are YOUNG kids you perverts)
I see the wasp on the length of my arm
(relates back to the diary writing, the events, etc, take note on how the wasp moved from the wall to the arm, getting closer to the narrator as this is probably very important)

Oh, how I meant to tease him
Oh, how I meant no harm
Touching his back with my hand, I kiss him
I see the wasp on the length of my arm

Oh great sights upon this state, hallelu�
(now, this is a more mature take on the subject, the state I see is love, with great sights in the same sentence, it seems like the narrator is really in love this time, NOW, this is important this is the great switch in the song, REALLY IMPORTANT, the event being referred to, the wasps, the memories, was the kiss of his friend, he misses his friend much, he is remembering his friend through the wasps and is writing about him in his diary.)
Wonders bright, and rivers, lake, hallelu�
(wonders bright = revelations?, rivers, lake = recollects on the good times they had)
Trail of Tears and Horseshoe Lake, hallelu�
(the kiss happened at horshoe lake?)
Trusting things beyond mistake, hallelu�
(he followed through with his feelings, it's not an accident that he felt that way, his feelings are feelings all the same)

We were in love, we were in love
(not in love no more *cries*)
Palisades, Palisades
(recollecting in diary)
I can wait, I can wait
(maybe they planned to meet up again (yeah i know that's a stupid speculation)

I can't explain the state that I'm in
(he doesn't know why he is desiring to meet up with his childhood friend again, I love the homosexual inuendo though, i doubt it though))
The state of my heart, he was my best friend
(WAS, a recolletion)
Into the car, from the backseat
(I love how people usaully have sex in the backseat of cars because it has more room LOL, maybe this is when they meet up when they're older ;) LOL OR NOT.)
Oh, admiration in falling asleep
(dreaming of his friend, or using sleep as a means of escape from reality, (maybe the sex was bad LOL))
All of my powers, day after day
(a lot of sex, everyday)
I can tell you, we swaggered and swayed
(drunk sex)
Deep in the tower, the prairies below
(deep in the tower = heaven, the sex got good.)
I can tell you, the telling gets old
(or not?)
Terrible sting and terrible storm
(they're relationship had its ups and down, the sting in their childhood started it)
I can tell you the day we were born
(this is really sweet)
My friend is gone, he ran away
(he couldn't deal with sufjan's sexual desires)
I can tell you, I love him each day
(move on sufjan, move on)
Though we have sparred, wrestled and raged
(rough sex, make-up sex)
I can tell you, I love him each day
(yeah really)
Terrible sting and terrible storm
I can tell you

Okay, this is a joke even though half of this was serious...

When I heard the song, I didn't get the vibe that it was about Sufjan, or him having a childhood "lover," but whatever he means, it doesn't matter to me whether he's gay or not. This is my favorite song by him.
This part I'm a bit confused with:
"Oh great sights upon this state, hallelu?
Wonders bright, and rivers, lake, hallelu?
Trail of Tears and Horseshoe Lake, hallelu?
Trusting things beyond mistake, hallelu?" Can anyone explain?

He is falling asleep when he sees a wasp in the wall, bringing up childhood memories. He remembers how they had made up some sort of "wasp monster." He also remembers a time when he and his brother and best friend were swimming and he had teased his friend and hurt his feelings. "He runs away washing his face in his hands" makes me think he friend started crying but was trying to hide it. He links this teasing with the idea of the wasp monster: "stung seven times," "I see the wasp on the length of my arm." More like he was acting like the wasp monster at this time. He and his friend have grown apart even though he still cares for him. I think the "kiss" does refer to Judas betraying Christ with a kiss; he loved his friend but he still hurt him deeply.

I wish everyone posting to this site would realize that Sufjan uses complex writing in his lyrics, shifting reference and narrator all the time...sometimes he speaks as one partner in a relationship or friendship sometimes as another. A great example of this is Springfield, where at times he speaks as the man in the affair and others as the woman. This is partly what makes his lyrics so mysterious, timeless and beautiful. It gives him great freedom to express the common human situation, frailty and triumph. Interpreting him too literally is a big mistake, and leads you to miss sooooo much in his music.

I can tell you, I love him each day
Though we have sparred, wrestled and raged
I can tell you, I love him each day
Terrible sting and terrible storm
I can tell you

K so i realize that Sufjan has come out and said what it was about but i want to give my interpretation anyway, becuase I like it.

With the reference to leg warmers I am assuming it is a girl that is speaking. Also, the wasp on the wall is real. However it is also stands for something. The wasp has a female gender and her wings are outstretched, meaning it is about to move to be agrresive... animals usually puff themselvs up when a quarrel is confrontation is about to happen. The wasp is a girl.

K, so they are swimming in the water just chilln and being friends. The boy is bit 7 times and in the bible 7 represents a "complete something" example "7 days the earth was made." another example "6 is considered incomplete that is why the devil is 666." The wasp (girl) gets this boy to fall in love with her and the narrorater wanted to tease her friend about it in jest, as all friends do. When she kissed him and got close the wasp (other girl) stung her.

The line "we were in love." maybe meant that they loved eachother like friends and always thought nothing would tear them apart... then this girl came along. The line "I can wait." means thta the narrorator is just going to wait until the other girl is gone so she can have her friend back again.


" can't explain the state that I'm in
The state of my heart, he was my best friend"
"Terrible sting and terrible storm"

Terrible sting and terrible storm is the condition that her heart is in after losing her best friend. The sting comes from the wasp "which again represtents the other girl."

"my friend ran a way" he ran away from her because he was more interested in the other girl. Both of my best friends hardly have time for me anymore because they got lovers, so that is understandable why he would leave his best friend for a girl that he liked.

"I can tell you, I love him each day
Though we have sparred, wrestled and raged
I can tell you, I love him each day
Terrible sting and terrible storm
I can tell you "

Even though he is gone she still loves him each day, and even though they have sparred wrestled ( just means argueing)
she is still just waiting for him to come back to her. She is all alone in a cold room and only the wasp fills her thoughts in the begining of the song.

This song is love in soo many ways.
a) I've heard a fantastic cover that has been forever etched in my mind.
b) The orchestration is gorgeous.
c) My brother was analyzing this for a school assignment (on my recommendation) and my entire family got into a long discussion about the multiple meanings of this song and admiring the sheer beauty of this song.
d) I get such great vibes and images from this song.

love love love.

This song is easily my favorite song by Sufjan and one of my favorite songs in general. It has so many different phases. The beginning is soft and absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Then the song just builds throughout. In my opinion this song expresses the epitome of childhood. The first stanza is so familiar to me, because I remember staying up late at night when I was a kid, doodling or writing stories.
I think the rest of this song is simply about a childhood friendship. The kissing is just teasing, as he said "Oh how I meant no harm." He also said they wrestled which is something that children do all the time when they play. The "We were in love" part expresses how children love the outdoors and love to play. Also the last verse about swaying into the car and falling asleep in the backseat reminds me of having a big fun adventurous day as a kid and the exhaustion that follows. The line "Oh admiration in falling asleep" gives me goosebumps everytime I hear this song. He admires the fact that after such an amazing day he can rest and be ready for it again the next day. I guess we take advantage of that.

This song is so beautiful. I like the part when they sing "we were in love. we were in love." :]

Lamb of God, we sound the horn. Hallelujah!
To us your ghost is born. Hallelu�]

Ummm, why are these lyrics absent at this site?
Is it because they are Christian in theme? If so, shame on you, censoring lyrics like that!

the beginning with the wind instruments and the soft guitar makes me feel as if i'm falling in love. so beautiful, and somewhat tragic-sounding. it also has a summer-y feel to it, as if this is taking place at a summer camp. i cannot begin to describe how sufjan stevens' music affects me; what i can say for sure is that i experience so many different emotions, and it takes a true artist to make music like this.

He just has too many songs with references to other men, like in "To Be Alone With You" when he says "you gave up a wife and a family...to be alone with me" so it would make sense that he is gay.


I believe the lyric in that song you referred to...is actually a lyrical statement about Jesus. Meaning, Jesus Christ gave up a wife and family to have a relationship with US. He didn't come to Earth to have a human relationship, He came to die on a cross to save our sins...so that we could have a relationship with HIM.

Nothing homosexual about that.

2 Replies

But you don't really KNOW that. Unless of course, you've talked to him, and he has explicitly said I AM NOT GAY. I don't know, I hate it when people say stuff like that, almost in a know it all kind of way. I can think he's writing songs from his own perspective if I want to, and I can take to interpret them however I wish, hence the "at least that's what it seems like to me"
That's what makes music so wonderful. So, scenicworld, which by the way is a very good song, it's not very nice to go and ruin all the fun for everyone (or at least just me)

sufjan isn't gay. he never writes songs from his own point of view or about his own life, they're always from some fictional person's perspective.