Maize Stalk Drinking Blood Lyrics

lying in the hot sun today
watching the clouds run away
thought a little while about you
the sky was a petrifying blue
and while the geese flew past
for no reason at all
i let the sky fall
this is an empty country, and i am the king
and i should not be allowed to touch anything

i picked myself up off the ground
shook the grass from my hair and i
walked around
felt the warm sun in my eye
strangers were passing by
i shinnied up the black walnut tree
let the hard blue sky fall right through me
and i saw the sad young cardinals, trying to sing
and i should not be allowed to touch anything
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

5 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Cover art for Maize Stalk Drinking Blood lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

man seeing the perfection of nature and seeing how his alleged mastership over it intrudes on that very quality of nature which he cherishes

Cover art for Maize Stalk Drinking Blood lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

"one of the most beautiful songs he's ever written."

Agreed. However, I don't really think it's about nature, as such; it's about being ridiculously in love and how that state of mind makes you feel simultaneously all-powerful and alienated from the rest of the world -- like you've suddenly got this magic, Midas-like power that's altogether too intense for the regular life going on around you. "Letting the sky fall" could be either positive (overwhelming happiness) or negative (overwhelming sadness), but either way his emotional state is profoundly changing the world around him.

Cover art for Maize Stalk Drinking Blood lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

Amen, eleventy

Cover art for Maize Stalk Drinking Blood lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

i'll second that amen.

one of the most beautiful songs he's ever written.

Cover art for Maize Stalk Drinking Blood lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

I think this song is actually about someone who has really messed up his relationship, a fight or a break up or something. Most of the imagery is negative, the clouds running away, the sky being a petrifying blue (immediately after the narrator thinking a little while about 'you'), and the most chilling in my mind, the sad young cardinals trying to sing. And the narrator stating twice that he should not be allowed to touch anything. It all seems so sad and frustrating, but God it's a beautiful song.