I did a presentation on this song for my English class a few years ago and this is what I got.
"So may this round be on the corpse of a dead man." Literal meaning- Round of drinks on his corpse. Non-literal- A toast to him for his life.
"These fiends of vicious breed raise holy hell." Literal meaning- the little devils are causing a lot of trouble. Non-literal meaning- the person's friends are mourning through the means of sin.
"Love him now he lives no longer" -It's a huge contradiction to the third stanza "this friend so dear..."
"But you never tell the tales [...] On this friend who never found his..." They aren't mentioning the things they did (or didn't do) that caused him to become a "fallen soul." (2nd stanza, last line)
This song is basically about how friends can be superficial by pretending that they care when they are around other people, but when they are alone, they don't care.
I did a presentation on this song for my English class a few years ago and this is what I got.
"So may this round be on the corpse of a dead man." Literal meaning- Round of drinks on his corpse. Non-literal- A toast to him for his life.
"These fiends of vicious breed raise holy hell." Literal meaning- the little devils are causing a lot of trouble. Non-literal meaning- the person's friends are mourning through the means of sin.
"Love him now he lives no longer" -It's a huge contradiction to the third stanza "this friend so dear..."
"But you never tell the tales [...] On this friend who never found his..." They aren't mentioning the things they did (or didn't do) that caused him to become a "fallen soul." (2nd stanza, last line)
This song is basically about how friends can be superficial by pretending that they care when they are around other people, but when they are alone, they don't care.