Don't Carry It All

@ treant - A great observation, and although a child's death certainly plays a part in this song, I think it's about the autumn season. A celebration of the fruits of labor, a unified community (the chorus), a homecoming, and death all in one.

"A neighbor's blessed burden within reason", I believe, refers to a harvest of some sort. I picture fields of wheat needing sowing and a community coming together in helping ("becomes a burden borne of one and all").

I've chuckled to myself thinking of this song as a sort of communist anthem. The tune itself certainly has a sense of a marching of sorts.

"A monument to build beneath the arbors" has me thinking of a wedding. A couple standing underneath an arbor committing themselves to one another certainly is a building of something monumental. Sorry. That's totally cheesy, I know.

"Let every vessel pitching hard towards starboard, Lay it's head on summer's freckled knees." The homecoming toward the end of a long summer travel season. I love the lyric about summer having freckled knees. So brilliant.

Along with the wonders of a great harvest, a celebration in marriage and homecoming, death also falls upon this autumn season. "Lazy will the loam come from its hiding" is an amazing way of telling of the earth claiming this deceased child.

And the last verse brings it all back, "So raise a glass to turnings of the season, And watch it as it arcs towards the sun."

If you follow the verses, it seems like it might be about a child dying and the community's reaction to the event. The "turning of the season" is the death - a time of change. The phrase "neighbors' blessed burden" could perhaps refer to the child when it was still alive - the "blessed burden" being the task of caring for the child - which, through death, is "borne of all and one" as the whole community mourns. The chorus seems to exhort the parents to not carry the whole burden of the death themselves but to share their sadness with their friends and neighbors. The next verse describes a monument to be built that perhaps will provide a place of peace and rest where "every vessel pitching" in the metaphorical ocean of life can "lay its head on summer's freckled knees". The following verse adds more detail, describing how at the monument the boy will be buried and return to the soil. The last verse ties back to the first verse but with a more reflective tone, describing how as the community members help the parents to accept their loss, they will one day also be supported by the community in their own times of trouble.

I think that Meloy said that the "turning of the seasons" was reference to the album's change in sound in an interview somewhere.

Couple things that popped out to me, third verse, I think he is saying "hiding" not "high beam".

First chorus it sounds like he says "but" not "and" on the last line.

Also, I think in this context it would be spelled "borne" not "born".

Other then that, this sounds like a perfect interpretation. Also a great song.

This song screams Arcade Fire's "Wake Up." Still great, though.

from their website:

Lazy will the loam come from its hiding And return this quiet searcher to the soil

This song is about the band coming back to who they really are, a change from the direction they were going with their previous albums.

At face value, I first thought this song was about the Mayflower and the pilgrims, which it very well could be.

I think this song is about a relationship/marriage. A neighbor is someone who is next to you, as in standing at the altar or standing next to you in life. I think "bear your neighbor's burden within reason" (my favorite lyrics of the song) is sharing your partner's woes and troubles, and not letting them shoulder all the responsibility in the relationship. The monument is the home, or center of the new life, and the "vessels pitching hard to starboard" could be like "troubles in the waters" or relationship issues. The "body of the boy" could be a miscarriage or death of an infant son.

"Raising a glass to the turning of the seasons" is knowing that time goes on and you can get through problems. "Arc towards the sun" is that everything gets better.

The chorus and title "don't carry it all" means to share in the relationship, don't carry all the stress, talk about it with your partner and "share the burden". Letting the "yolk fall from our shoulders" is just to relax sometimes, take a break from life and just be.

'Here we come to a turning of the season' In an agrarian community, the seasons are changing from spring to summer. That the 'we' is an agrarian community is evident through the description of coming together to harvest in the rest of the refrain. We know it is summer for many reasons, including the talk of the 'brilliant sun', and the fact that harvest season is usually summer, but mainly because the word 'summer' is stated explicitly in the second verse.

'Witness to the arc towards the sun' (They) watch as their crops reach upwards to the light. Crops bend (arc) as they grow, towards areas of light, namely up 'towards the sun'.

'The neighbors blessed burden within reason Becomes a burden borne of all in one' Those in the agrarian community work hard together to harvest the crops. A 'blessed burden' is the difficult work of the harvest that that are thankful to have because it means that the growing was successful.

'And nobody, nobody knows' I don't really know either.

'Let the yoke fall from our shoulders Don't carry it all don't carry it all' No farmer tries to do all the work of the harvest.

'We are all our hands in holders' Everyone holds hands. Also everyone puts their hands in containers, probably because they are putting crops into those containers. A 'holder' is a container.

'[Beneath] this bold and brilliant sun' Probably beneath and not but meet.

But this I swear to all Hmmm.

More coming.

I want to point out a few clever lines:

We are all our hands in holders

A pun on the word 'holders'. Hands in other's hands, or hands in grain containers.

But every vessel pitching hard to starboard Lay it's head on summer's freckled knees

Trade laden ships (vessels) returning to be docked on the beaches (summer's freckled knees). Also harvest containers (vessels) tipped (pitching) over onto the laps of those who sort them,

And you must bear your neighbors burden within reason And your labors will be borne when all is done, and nobody nobody knows

Support your neighbor through their hardships, and you will get through them together. Or birth (bear) your neighbor's child, no one will know who's child it is when the childbirth (labor) is over.