The Decemberists: Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) (2006)

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. In weeks past, we've looked at lyrics that to varying degrees express the feelings or tell the stories of the people who wrote them. In contrast, The Decemberists' lead singer and songwriter Colin Meloy doesn't really do any of that. In a style that would be best defined as "literary," Meloy crafts stories about others, often using history or literature as a background. It's really ridiculously intellectual and sounds too pretentious to be true. But the songs are so damn catchy. Let's have a listen:



Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)

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 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
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 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
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
-----------------

How great is the back and forth between Meloy and Laura Veirs? That much alone would sell me on this song without anything else; luckily, the music and the lyrics are typically good, if a little straightforward. But let's dive in anyway.

Meloy sets the scene right from the beginning, mentioning a "heart-carved tree trunk" and "a sweetheart left behind" that instantly give the song an old-time feel. Does anyone actually carve hearts in trees anymore, or is posting "<3" on someone's wall about as close as we get? This imagery stands in contrast to modern times, and fits in with the open-air nature imagery that comes later. As for "a sweetheart left behind," at this point in the song it's unclear exactly what that means, but combined with "Yankee bayonet", we can at least understand that this story takes place during the Civil War, and that someone has left his love behind to fight in it.

The ambiguity of "left behind" doesn't last long. "Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas/That's where my true love lies". So not only has the soldier died and left his girl alone, but he did so "far from the...Carolinas," which is ostensibly their home. That would make the dead soldier a Confederate, and the "Yankee bayonet" is most likely the weapon that killed him.

Incidentally, "Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas" is one of my favorite Decemberists lines. Not only is it beautiful imagery describing these states (on the east coast and filled with rivers and lakes), but something about the line, either the way it is written or sung or both, really transmits the affection and nostalgia that this girl feels for her home.

The next verse seems to be the soldier repeating the words with which he tried to reassure the girl before leaving: "look for me when the sun-bright swallow sings," i.e. to remember him when she hears the birds singing. But the next line is a sobering reality that he is "in the ground". The contrast is stark and a little bit sickening, a reminder that war rarely brings good fortune for those directly involved.

"Yankee Bayonet"'s chorus follows up on this idea: the only way that the soldier "will be home" is when the war is over ("no more bullets in Battle Creek [another area of South Carolina]") and people "make a grave" for him.

A common theme that has been brought up while analyzing these various songs is that saying a lot in very few words = win. The verse that follows the chorus is an excellent study in this tenet. First, we get another fantastic couple of lines that I enjoy for the same reason I enjoyed the line about the "sea-swelled Carolinas" above. "When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee/Made a seam to hem me in"; Oconee being a county in South Carolina. It's pretty, it's nostalgic, and in addition it sets up the next lines perfectly. Before, the girl felt trapped, but after falling in love, she feels like her horizons have been expanded infinitely. We get their origin story in two simple and sweet lines: "There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless/Got my heart right pierced by a pin". That first moment when you realize that you're in love with someone, you get "your heart...pierced by a pin". Great phrasing.

Moving on. The soldier discusses "the dead of Manassas" in gory detail, letting us know that it was probably in one of the two Battles of Manassas (known as the Battles of Bull Run in the north, an interesting touch) where he died. Meanwhile, his love is at home, her "blankets barren" but her "belly big with child." I understand that Meloy is telling us that her bed is empty, but isn't "barren" an interesting word to use here, considering that it often means "infertile"? I doubt that anything more is meant by it than it simply being an interesting contradiction, but it's something to think on.

The short bridge that leads into the final verse is essentially the soldier's lament that his own mortality keeps him from returning home-- imagery of a gravesite is prevalent with "stems" (flowers), "bones" (um...bones), and "stone walls" (headstones). It also probably refers to Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate general who was an integral part of the Battles of Manassas referred to earlier.

Finally, the last verse is sung by both voices together, in contrast to the rest of the song. They're reunited, but only in that she thinks of him when observing the world around her, as was mentioned in a previous verse. "I will come on the breath of wind" is a great line and somehow manages to end this thoroughly depressing tale on an upbeat note. His memory is everywhere around her-- though interestingly, no further mention is made of their unborn child together.

So what's the bottom line? It's interesting to think about the fact that "Yankee Bayonet" presents as its sympathetic subject a Confederate soldier and his love. So often, the "heroes" of this time period, whether in movies, television, literature, or even history books, are those from the North, valiantly fighting the good fight against slavery. But not only is that not the viewpoint presented here, but almost nothing is mentioned of the politics driving the war. Aside from the mentions of geography, this song could be about any couple caught in the middle of any war. Maybe that's the message that Meloy is trying to drive home, and maybe the war he describes isn't so different from our current one after all--  at least in this way.

Whew. This was an absolutely ridiculous song to write about, not because the general meaning of the song was difficult to determine, but because of the depth and intelligence of Meloy's words. You can already tell from the way in which he writes that he's a pretty smart guy. But the way that he weaves words and stories and history and music together is pretty amazing. I had to actually do a good amount of internet research on the Civil War to connect all the dots. Even more amazing then, that his songs are as accessible as they are.

Well, some of his songs. We'll just ignore this whole debacle.

P.S.- I didn't really get a chance to talk about the rhythm of the song. I'm not a poetry expert for anything beyond iambic pentameter, but I'm pretty convinced that the majority of all of the verses are basically dactylic in nature. This involves one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. Within the song, it rarely if ever follows the rhythm by strict rule, but the infrastructure is there. Just like we discussed in fun.'s "Be Calm," it causes the song to be ridiculously catchy and makes it easy to sing along.