In our days we will live
Like our ghosts will live
Pitching glass at the cornfield crows
And folding clothes
Like stubborn boys across the room
We'll keep everything
Grandma's gun, and the black bear claw
That took her dog
When sister Laurie says "Amen"
We won't hear anything
The ten-car train will take that word
That fledgling bird
And the falling house across the way
It'll keep everything
The baby's breath, our bravery wasted
And our shame
And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Both our tender bellies bound in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its Resurrection Fern
In our days we will say
What our ghosts will say
We gave the world what it saw fit
But what'd we get?
Like stubborn boys with big green eyes
We'll see everything
In the timid shade of the autumn leaves
And the buzzard's wing
And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Our tender bellies all wound around in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and his Resurrection Fern
Like our ghosts will live
Pitching glass at the cornfield crows
And folding clothes
Like stubborn boys across the room
We'll keep everything
Grandma's gun, and the black bear claw
That took her dog
When sister Laurie says "Amen"
We won't hear anything
The ten-car train will take that word
That fledgling bird
And the falling house across the way
It'll keep everything
The baby's breath, our bravery wasted
And our shame
And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Both our tender bellies bound in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its Resurrection Fern
In our days we will say
What our ghosts will say
We gave the world what it saw fit
But what'd we get?
Like stubborn boys with big green eyes
We'll see everything
In the timid shade of the autumn leaves
And the buzzard's wing
And we'll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Our tender bellies all wound around in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and his Resurrection Fern
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher, edited by spdodger
Resurrection Fern Lyrics as written by Samuel Ervin Beam
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I don't know if I'm getting a really superficial meaning from this song, but to me, it sounds like two boys who fell in love as children and then realized as they grew up that they could no longer be together because of what people would think of them.
In the first three stanzas, it sounds like the narrator's describing things that young boys would do, like "pitching glass at cornfield crows". When he speaks about Sister Lowry, it seems to me like he's referring to sitting in church with this other boy and not being able to hear the words of the prayers because they're too busy thinking about running away with each other.
In the next stanza, it sounds as though he's referring to an old house, like a "clubhouse" where they hid, and maybe had their first kiss (even though they would regret it and not end up together anyway: "our bravery wasted, and our shame".
The next 8 lines are some of the most beautiful in the entire song. The narrator is talking about how they would camp out and undress beside the fire, each watching the other with that nervous feeling in their stomach; a feeling of love and of apprehension because it was so forbidden. When he sings about the oak tree and resurrection fern, I think he's referring to the nature of the oaks and ferns to live their lives intertwined with each other (as resurrection ferns are often found living wound around oak trees). "We gave the world what it saw fit, and what'd we get?" refers to how the boys grew up and played the part that society expected them to, maybe getting married and having children, but never actually attaining happiness, as they were still in love with each other.
The last two stanzas are basically repetition, but I think they serve to reveal that the narrator and his childhood love dream about one day meeting in the afterlife and living the lives they did as children: happy together with no one to tell them that they could not love each other.
I agree with this heartily.