Decoration Day Lyrics Meaning

Decoration day memorial day by henry wadsworth longfellow 1882 decoration day sleep comrades sleep and rest on this field of the grounded arms where foes no more molest nor sentry s shot alarms.

Decoration day lyrics meaning. Ye have slept on the ground before and started to your feet at the cannon s sudden roar or the drum s redoubling beat. The song has always captivated me. It is about a young man who is part of a blood feud between two families which he didn t believe in start or choose but had no choice in the matter because of his last name.

Parts of the rural south still celebrate decoration day in its traditional southern form. This song is about a son who is caught in a feud belonging to his father. He doesn t even know why he is fighting with the other family hill its just something that has been going on since before he was even born.

I suppose taking the metaphor further decoration day here is used for fallen lovers love affairs instead of fallen soldiers. General commenti m not ezactly sure of the meaning here. But the battlefield as a metaphor for sex appears in the grinderman song when my love comes down and the line i m not your favourite lover appears in the bad seeds song moonland.

An occasion on which a family or a church congregation gathers to place flowers on the graves of loved ones and to hold a memorial service for them. The literal definition of decoration day or decoration as it is sometimes called taken from the dictionary of smoky mountain english is.