This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind
Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas
That's where my true love lies
Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils
All a'chew on your bones so dry
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave?
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then, then
When I was a girl
How the hills of Oconee made a seam to hem me in
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin
But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas?
All the bellies and the bones and the bile
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with a child
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave?
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Stems and bones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
The skein of skin is all too few
To keep me from you
But oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind
A sweetheart left behind
Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas
That's where my true love lies
Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
But you are in the ground with the wolves and the weevils
All a'chew on your bones so dry
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave?
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then, then
When I was a girl
How the hills of Oconee made a seam to hem me in
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin
But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas?
All the bellies and the bones and the bile
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with a child
But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave?
For I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
I will be home then
Stems and bones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
The skein of skin is all too few
To keep me from you
But oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind
Lyrics submitted by haruki, edited by tahare2000, wiscodisco
Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) Lyrics as written by Colin Meloy
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The reason I transcribed this song (did a great deal of pecking about to find "Oconee" too) was because Manassas is where I grew up. It's cool when a band you love namedrops your hometown.
@haruki oh my god, same!! i just happened to look up and see if any songs mentioned manassas. thanks for doing this :)
@haruki "But when the sun breaks<br /> To no more bulletin battle-cry" But when the sun breaks to no more bullets in battle creak"
excellent (: my favourite part is the last verse
providing this song takes place during the American Civil War, I think the "stone walls" line might be a pun :D
I was a soldier for a long time, Infantry, served in Iraq and Afghanistan. This song made me think about the men I knew who left their wives and loved one and never returned. Brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it and made me a instant fan of The Decemberist. (btw, the lyrics on here are wrong in a couple of places, ie voles, not wolves, Bulletin Battle-cry not bullets in battle creeks, he just sings poetically and scaly skin, not skeins. Some folks are trying to hard to "interpret" where the soldier is from. I will dispel all the myths right now. Keep in mind they are Artists(Colin and company) and part of enjoying this kind of artistic work is interpretation. First off clearly she is from South Carolina, Oconee County in the Mountains. Why and how would she be with a northerner? He did not fly in for weekends! Also they were attending the Fair together putting him there with her in South Carolina. He carved with a "Yankee Bayonet" maybe because it was a souvenir he took from the battlefield or the fact that the south did not have much production capacity and in fact used "Yankee" and British weapons. That is an interpretation thing, it is open to your interpretation. In fact maybe she carved it? Maybe the bayonet was left behind or was it the carving? not clear but some other things are clear....... For instance, modes of travel were slow at that time, yes Manasas is in Virginia south of Washington DC not to far by our standards today, but a long trip in those days. It is far away from her in South Carolina by the standards of the day. Third, he (the soldier in the song) Refers to the Battle as "Manasas" Southerners called it Manasas, Yankees called the battle "bull-run" Thus he has to be a Southerner.
@nottareally <br /> I don’t think he carved the heart with a bayonet. I think the first three lines are a summary of the story:<br />
I think this might be my favorite song on the new album.
Such a beautiful and amazing song. i love the new album
This is clearly the best song on the new album. Laura Veirs has such a good voice. It seems she has replaced Petra Haden
love love love i cannot wait to see them in october!
Great album, but what's with the over-use(in my opinion) of the word "grave?" In this song, the Island, and Summersong he uses the word. It's not that I do not like songs about death(au contraire), it's just that I would expect more diverse word choices from the Decemberists is all.
My favorite on thew new album. It sounds just folky enough and still has the decemberists feel. Petra has a beautiful voice - is this the first duet the decemberists have done?