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Papa died smiling
Wide as the ring of a bell
Gone all star white
Small as a wish in a well
And Sodom, south Georgia
Woke like a tree full of bees
Buried in Christmas bows
And a blanket of weeds
Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"
Papa died while my girl
Lady Edith was born
Both heads fell like
Eyes on a crack in the door
And Sodom, south Georgia
Slept on an acre of bones
Slept through Christmas
Slept like a bucket of snow
Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"
Wide as the ring of a bell
Gone all star white
Small as a wish in a well
And Sodom, south Georgia
Woke like a tree full of bees
Buried in Christmas bows
And a blanket of weeds
Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"
Papa died while my girl
Lady Edith was born
Both heads fell like
Eyes on a crack in the door
And Sodom, south Georgia
Slept on an acre of bones
Slept through Christmas
Slept like a bucket of snow
Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"
Lyrics submitted by feverdream
Track duration: 04:59
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...I noticed one person commented that it hadn't been discussed much, and another person stated it was the only line he didn't understand, so I thought I'd chime in. To me, this is possibly one of the simplest lines in the song. Here's my thoughts:
When he says "both" he is referring to Papa's head falling (because he died) and Edith's head falling (as she was born).... and he develops the visual he is attempting to create, by comparing it to eyes falling to a crack below a door.
To elaborate:
When one writes poetry or pros, it's much improved when you can create a "visual" for the reader. Once it occurred to me what this line might be saying, it was one of those eureka moments and I loved it, making it one of my favorite I&W lyrics. I don't think this line has any deep meaning or needs a lot of analysis, and that may be the problem some have with it, and it may be why some just overlook it.
It is very simply painting a visual picture. If you've ever been in the room when a baby is born, or when a person dies, you will often notice the head drop. As a baby comes out, the head just flops toward the floor. It of course has to be supported by the medical staff.... Likewise, at the very moment a person passes, the head, even if they're laying comfortably in bed, will drop. In some cases it's very subtle, but it's there... a drop, or at very least a shift.
He reiterates this visual drop by comparing it to eyes on a crack in a door. Say you're sitting in a dark room and suddenly a light comes on in an adjacent room. You will instantly notice the light under the door, and your eyes will "drop" instinctively to take note. Eyes don't literally drop of course, which makes the comparison a little more wonderful I think!
I feel the only "deep" meaning in the line is that he is tying death and birth together, and this ties the two verses together.
Overall, the comments here are wonderful and fun to read, but for me the beauty of the song is the fact that it doesn't really state anything literally. Those are always my favorite songs! The abstract ones that are open for interpretation.
Peace.....
I fail to see how the "all dead white boys" line can be made to be about race (as some comments have suggested). The song talks about the singer's father's death and the birth of the singer's daughter; nowhere is something like Jim Crow or slavery mentioned. The "white" should really be thought of as "up in the sky white" (i.e. the "star white" of the song). That is, an ethereal or angelic (literally) white.
Like most Iron and Wine songs, this one presents images that are open to multiple interpretations. Here I'll suggest a particular one. It helps to remember that Sodom was a blasphemous, sinful place. To me, the "South Georgia" signifies a sort of personal Sodom; that is, the singer's personal feelings against God.
In the first verse, the singer's father dies, but seems content in his death ("Papa died smiling"). Understandably, the singer is angered by the loss and directs this anger against God ("And Sodom South Georgia / Woke like a tree full of bees").
In the third verse, the singer reflects on the connection between religion and death ("Papa died Sunday [a holy day]"). Even though everyone is doomed to death ("All dead white boys"), they still love and worship God ("Say God is good").
I don't personally take the "White tongues hang out" as being about tombstones since tombstones don't "hang." Instead, I read it as a description of unthinking devotion, maybe tied in with the Catholic religious ritual (as has been suggested).
Verse 4 parallels the death of the singer's father ("Papa died while my") with the birth of his daughter ("girl lady Edith was born"). The wonder of her birth quiets his anger, though death remains present somewhere in his mind ("And Sodom South / Slept on an acre of bones"). Verse 6 again returns to parallel death and religion.
To summarize a bit, it is a song about a very old and very fundamental struggle with religious faith (e.g. in Job). The cruelty of death pushes us toward anger against God and the miracle of life calms us and draws us back. The singer is well-aware of his fluctuating faith, contrasting himself to those who are more dogmatic. However, his understanding ("And I understood...") means different things in each verse. After his father dies, the line seems to mean that a fear of death will lead to dogmatic faith (because of the promise of eternal life). However, after his daughter is born, the line seems to mean more that he understands how the miracle of life draws people to God.
A few bits and pieces: the verses about Sodom undercut themselves in an interesting fashion. In verse 2, his anger is "buried" by the Christmas bows and weeds, suggesting that his anger is latent or that he is unable to act on it (e.g.) because he is simply performing the rituals of everyday life, because of the detritus in his mind... In verse 5, the ominous "bones" reference reminds us that death exists even during the miracle of life (sort of an "Et in Arcadia ego" moment). The snow, to me, suggests that while his "Sodom" is sleeping and buried under sound-proof snow, there may well be a time it will arise again.
Some of the other lines help to set the tone. e.g. "Small as a wish in a well" gives us a sense of how little human desire ("wishing") influences the world.
"Honestly, at the very core of it, it was about hypocrisy in terms of racism. And so the rest of it just built around there. Yeah, it's a lot of different stuff. You said it's pretty ambiguous, and that one I enjoy mostly because of that. It's very rare that I come across a line like the chorus that works in so many different ways. "
I fail to see how the "all dead white boys" line can be made to be about race (as some comments have suggested). The song talks about the singer's father's death and the birth of the singer's daughter; nowhere is something like Jim Crow or slavery mentioned. The "white" should really be thought of as "up in the sky white" (i.e. the "star white" of the song). That is, an ethereal or angelic (literally) white.
Like most Iron
I fail to see how the "all dead white boys" line can be made to be about race (as some comments have suggested). The song talks about the singer's father's death and the birth of the singer's daughter; nowhere is something like Jim Crow or slavery mentioned. The "white" should really be thought of as "up in the sky white" (i.e. the "star white" of the song). That is, an ethereal or angelic (literally) white.
Like most Iron
Papa's death was a welcome one. He died smiling, after all. In a town like Sodom in the South of Georgia, death is a liberator.
See, Sodom is jaded. Its people are bored and boring. They've grown complacent over the years. They don't bother to take down the christmas decorations from the street lamps and telephone wires anymore, because what's the point? They'll just go back up next year. They don't care to pull the weeds. What's the point? They'll just grow back tougher.
Papa died while Narrator's daughter is being born. Such an amazing thing, life and death, and the way they interrelate. These are thoughts that Narrator probably hadn't really had until his father passed, yet there they are, demanding his attention despite the mind-numbing regularity he's become accustomed to.
Both heads fell - his father's heavy with the swoon of Death, his daughter's with the exhaustion of Birth - like the slow downward drift of the eyes as they follow the crack in a door left ajar.
And Sodom could care less. Life isn't sacred for them anymore. Neither is Death. Narrator is going through this quiet crisis, eyes suddenly reopened to the sanctity of existence, unable to share it for its profundity. Death is liberation from this homogenous, cultural wasteland. Narrator can finally see that in the look of peace and rest on his father's frail little dead man face. In death, he sees just how heavy the burden of this kind of life actually is.
In Catholicism, when receiving communion, it is acceptable to stick out your tongue to receive the Eucharist. I think this is a quite literal double meaning; one of the tongue splayed out in death, and the other of receiving the catholic sacrament which symbolizes one's acceptance of God.
In regard to the whole of the song (or poem, as it so clearly is poetry), I see Sam denouncing the evils of the modern-day 'Sodom' - South Georgia or more correctly the hypocrisy of the Southern states and (by extension) the world. The song is also clearly religious, and condemns those who enjoy putting on an outward show of being religious but do not try to truly understand what it actually means to claim 'God is Good'. At the same time, there is a strong racial undertone, which was the first thing I noticed about the song, though I can't place what Sam is trying to put across with it.
Papa died smiling
Wide as the ring of a bell
Gone all star white
Small as a wish in a well
We begin with the death of the narrator's father who smiles as he dies, finally understanding God and whose passing is as personal, as heartbreaking and yet as insignificant in the world as a wish whispered into a well.
And Sodom, south Georgia
Woke like a tree full of bees
Buried in Christmas bows
And a blanket of weeds
We have the wonderful metaphor of South Georgia waking 'like a tree full of bees', whose bustling activity is in complete contrast to the tranquillity of the past verse. This 'Sodom' is buried in self-indulgent quasi-religious outbursts, artificial shows of goodness 'Christmas bows' and lies that gently stifle growth and life 'blanket of weeds'. Sodom is content blanketing whatever evils lie beneath the surface.
Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"
The narrator acknowledges that his father died on a Sunday, the Christian day of rest and understands that this is right and fitting. I think it also could indicate that the narrator finally begins to understand God's plan for us all. However at the same time, all the 'white boys' die under the belief that 'God is good', their tombstones (what imagery!) claiming God's goodness because that is what they are expected to do. However they are no prophets, just tongues hanging out and repeating the words of another. There seems to be racial connotations to 'white boys', but I can't quite work it out. My only guess would be that the 'black boys' of the South have experienced enough racism at the hands of the hypocritical 'white boys' to believe in blindly claiming 'God is Good'.
Papa died while my girl
Lady Edith was born
Both heads fell like
Eyes on a crack in the door
Meanwhile, we return to the death of the narrators father and the birth of his daughter which bring to mind the circle of life and it is clear that the world moves on in spite of what it loses along the way. It seems that 'both heads fell like eyes on a crack in the door', hasn't been discussed much. I see it that, as eyes fall to the glimmer of light in the crack of a door, the narrators father and child get a glimpse of the light that lies ahead. Through birth, Edith sees the light of life while in dying Papa sees the light of whatever is beyond. There is hope.
And Sodom, south Georgia
Slept on an acre of bones
Slept through Christmas
Slept like a bucket of snow
All this time, as the narrators, his father, and his child have a revelation about life, God and death, Sodom sleeps on oblivious. Sodom sleeps, resting on the acre that is the bones of all those it has destroyed, and all the evil it has done. Despite all its claims of piety, Sodom is not awake to witness this religious revelation, nor does it care to. Instead it remains cold, unconscious and contained, like a bucket of snow. Slept is repeated three times, and we are incredulous that Sodom can rest aware of all it has done and refusing to see the light.
Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"
The third verse is repeated and we gain a further sense of life going on and repeating itself in others. While the narrator and concludes that 'I understood', 'Sodom, South Georgia' is left repeating its empty words to the grave - there is no distinction between their cold, hard tongues and their headstones.
All in all a beautiful song and beautiful poetry... Sam Beam never ceases to amaze me! Hope I managed to make at least some sense!
I think the narrator is a slave, and he's trying to say that "white boys" tell him what to believe. He can't form his own opinion about religion because he barely has any control over an aspect of his life.
"And Sodom, south Georgia/Slept on an acre of bones/Slept through Christmas/Slept like a bucket of snow" - I think this means that people are dying all the time (acre of bones) but life keeps going on in Sodom, South Georgia, as if they're sleeping through reality. And I find it significant that he says "slept through Christmas." Christmas is the holiday where Christ came to the Earth. If the people of Sodom are sleeping through Christmas, they're sleeping through Jesus' arrival. The narrator isn't saying here that he rejects Christianity or the beliefs that he has been fed by the whites, but he feels that if Jesus is real, he's not connecting with Him.
"Papa died smiling/Wide as the ring of a bell/Gone all star white" - Papa is a slave as well, and he died smiling because he did believe. He found what the narrator did not. And when Papa died, he became "all star white," meaning that he became just like a white man. Maybe he went to heaven where all men are equal, or maybe this is a negative thing and he became "one of them" in a sense.
Overall, by the slavery archetype, I think that Beam is trying to say that humans are in bondage while on Earth but he doesn't know what happens after death.
This is just my perspective that I think adds on to many of the things everyone else has said.