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.
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.
That was beautifully said, and it's exactly what I thought. I couldn't have possibly phrased it as nicely as you have, though. :)
That was beautifully said, and it's exactly what I thought. I couldn't have possibly phrased it as nicely as you have, though. :)