Lyrics for Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) as interpreted by haruki

Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) Lyrics
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 upon your bones so dry

But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battlecreek
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
Though I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child

But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battlecreek
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
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

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mdmesp
04-30-2009

Rated 0 
An old woman did dye in the first battle of Manassas. She was home bound and her house happened to be very close to the battlefield. However, soldiers also died in the battle.

When I searched Battlecreek, I got a picture of a grave stone in the shape of a tree trunk from around the same time as the civil war. I thought it was interesting considering the first line.

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zoolah
01-09-2009

Rated 0 
This is Laura Veirs doing the harmony.
There is no mistake.
And I love this song.

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blue.painted.tears
01-02-2009

Rated 0 
Fave. Decemberists. Song. Ever.
It's just incredible.

And it would be amazing if the song was based on Sullivan Ballou's letter. Beautiful words.

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Panger3
12-30-2008

Rated 0 
*your first correction* sorry :/

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Panger3
12-30-2008

Rated 0 
braddevos,

I agree with your interpretation. However, you're first correction to the lyrics is false. If you read the booklet that comes with The Crane Wife, you'll see that the lyrics do in fact say "But when the sun breaks to no more bullets in Battlecreek..." A common belief or common ear might hear "battle cry", but I have to trust the booklet here because The Decemberists did make the book. That's all I really trust for lyrics anyway...

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braddevos
11-24-2008

Rated 0 
Listening to this song a few times, I believe it is a story about a Southern soldier writing home to his Southern love during the war. Oconee is a County in northern South Carolina. He left her, pregnant, in South Carolina, to fight the invaders (yes, they invaded the South). He dies, yet she still receives his (delayed) letters (e.g. "But you are in the ground...) He wants her to make a proper Southern grave once the War is over (e.g. But when the sun breaks/To no more bullets in battle-cry/Then will you make a grave).


BTW - It should be:

"To no more bullets in [Battle-cry]"
"[No] I lingered here with the blankets barren"

I agree, it's Stonewall Jackson....not stone walls. Good double entendre.

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headwounds
10-10-2008

Rated 0 
I just listened to the song again, and I came to the conclusion that maybe he's talking about the second battle of Manassas?
It's considered to be one of the costliest battles.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was the line:
"Stems and bones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you"

It made me a bit confused as to why-- if the "Stonewall" he's refering to is 'Stonewall' Jackson-- Stonewall jackson is keeping from each other.
This and the mention of the Yankee Bayonet makes me think he was a Union soldier in love with a southern girl.
I could understand the other use of 'stonewall' keeping them apart, but I like the other way. Kinda keeps with the whole "Romeo and Juliet" Theme like in "O, Valencia".

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headwounds
10-10-2008

Rated 0 
First off, I love this song, and the whole idea of the Civil War romance feeds my imagination.
I would have to say, that this song is one of my favorites.
I think what some you have said about both of them being dead is true. He must've died in battle, and she maybe died at childbirth?

Also:
There were no spectators harmed at the first battle of Manassas (also called the first battle of Bull Run), and soldiers were killed, LadyLegba.
&
Tehlyu, to make a grave, to me, means to me at least, to die, or to simply know that you're digging your own grave, or condemning yourself to death in some way.

Again, lovely song.

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tehlyu
08-19-2008

Rated 0 
I have a question: Does the phrase "Make a grave" mean anything to you in The 'States? Is it a Civil war turn of phrase, or something like that?
It just struck me there; that I'd heard it before, then I realised there is that band "Pretty Girls Make Graves", which is also... a strange title, to say the least.

befuddled antipodean

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LadyLegba
06-03-2008

Rated -1 
Well, about Manaasas, there was only one death. An innocent old lady. So maybe Manaasas has another meaning?

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AladdinInsane
01-13-2008

Rated 0 
its a beautiful song, it was the first i heard by the decemberists and now i really like them.

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Phantom_causes
08-29-2007

Rated 0 
"both of these people seem to be dead. anyone else get that?
and that even dead, they're both together,
sewn in the ground"

Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. It's kinda hinted at when they both sing the lines "Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind" together. It seems as if she died in childbirth which was a common cause of death back up until the 20th century.

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elfrijol
08-27-2007

Rated 0 
both of these people seem to be dead. anyone else get that?
and that even dead, they're both together,
sewn in the ground

"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"

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RyanMcGinnis
08-08-2007

Rated 0 
Laura Veirs' voice is so beautiful in this song, and her and Colin's voices together make this song. I love it.

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decemberistsfan
04-29-2007

Rated 0 
Colin, you're are the most intelligence, creative, and simply genius person known to this earth. I mean people, how does he come up with these amazing songs, with such amazing vocabulary.
And those who have cleared up about the time period and location of this beautiful song, thank you. You saved me a lot of research.

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killrockstarz
03-22-2007

Rated 0 
reminds me of "when the roses bloom again"

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Ashley Y
03-03-2007

Rated 0 
Favourite song on the album. I love the simple thirteen-syllable rhythm of the lines.

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Delta 27
02-08-2007

Rated 0 
the fact is that there r always wars, and always people who die and always families which are torn apart, and people need to realize that

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Delta 27
02-08-2007

Rated 0 
its amazing i start listening to this song just cause i love the music, and i barely understand the lyrics, then i listen with the lyrics to hand and it gets so much better. aww decemberists....

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dertgerl
01-17-2007

Rated 0 
I think that this song also strikes a chord closer to home, what with war in Iraq and all. I don't know about you folks, but I happen to know quite a handfull of ladies who are here with their children while their husbands are off at war. Isn't it wonderful? Despite the 1500 years or so, people are still the same. Different stuff on the outside, but basically the same within.

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chaigirl44
01-15-2007

Rated 0 
This song is definitely growing on me. Out of all the songs on the new album its the one that always gets stuck in my head. its definitely a civil war love story. being from little rhody i think that would be really cool if the song is based on the letter that pendragon posted.

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nagerous
01-11-2007

Rated 0 
there stands Jackson like a stonewall!

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LittleUnicornBoy
01-10-2007

Rated +1 
providing this song takes place during the American Civil War, I think the "stone walls" line might be a pun :D

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Johnlennnnon
01-03-2007

Rated 0 
This is my favorite song. I love how he says "skin does not touch skin"... There is just this way he says it...

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pendragon23
12-31-2006

Rated 0 
When I heard this I immediately thought of a letter I heard during a class 10 years ago, which I've been talking about ever since. I just googled and found out it had been featured in Ken Burns' Civil War. It was Sullivan Ballou's goodbye letter to his wife, written a week before his death at the 1st Bull Run (Manassas). He was a Yankee from Rhode Island, but the verse about the breath of the wind reminded me of this:

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights . . . always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again . . .

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