This song is a counterpart to the song "We Both Go Down Together". "Leslie Ann Levine" was written first, making "we both go down together" the Prequel.
In 1842 Leslie was a mans name, and he is "clinging to the petty coat of the girl who died with [him]" his "un-touched Miranda" (see "we both go down together")
The line "Born at nine, dead at noon" likens ones life to the hours on a clock, the narrator is a teenager. This is why He repeats "Fifteen years gone now" he died at 15, making those years a waste.
In "we both go down together" the narrator says, "You come from parents wanton, a child hood rough and rotten, I come from wealth and beauty, untouched by work or duty". He also speaks of his parents forbidding there love; because of this they meet at his veranda, jump off the cliff together and commit suicide.
This explains many things:
1)Why he still "wail(s) from these catacombs and curse(s) [his] mothers name", it is her rejection which forced the suicide.
2)He says "The only love I've ever know's a chimney sweep" one of the lowest forms of work in 1842
3)Why he is "wandering this parapet".
4)Why he is buried in a dry ravine
5)Who the "wastrel" is in the line "This wastrel mislead, has brought this fate on me"
Just a side note the Decemberists hail from Portland, I don't know what it is that makes Portlandiers more imaginative, creative and all around more awesome...must be something in the water.
This song is a counterpart to the song "We Both Go Down Together". "Leslie Ann Levine" was written first, making "we both go down together" the Prequel.
In 1842 Leslie was a mans name, and he is "clinging to the petty coat of the girl who died with [him]" his "un-touched Miranda" (see "we both go down together")
The line "Born at nine, dead at noon" likens ones life to the hours on a clock, the narrator is a teenager. This is why He repeats "Fifteen years gone now" he died at 15, making those years a waste.
In "we both go down together" the narrator says, "You come from parents wanton, a child hood rough and rotten, I come from wealth and beauty, untouched by work or duty". He also speaks of his parents forbidding there love; because of this they meet at his veranda, jump off the cliff together and commit suicide.
This explains many things: 1)Why he still "wail(s) from these catacombs and curse(s) [his] mothers name", it is her rejection which forced the suicide. 2)He says "The only love I've ever know's a chimney sweep" one of the lowest forms of work in 1842 3)Why he is "wandering this parapet". 4)Why he is buried in a dry ravine 5)Who the "wastrel" is in the line "This wastrel mislead, has brought this fate on me"
Just a side note the Decemberists hail from Portland, I don't know what it is that makes Portlandiers more imaginative, creative and all around more awesome...must be something in the water.