"A daydream spills from my corked head
Breaks free of my wooden neck"
Okay, so the narrator starts off trying to block daydreams, but he slips up, and the day breaks free.
"Left to nod over sleeping waves
Like bobbing bait for bathing cod"
Sleeping waves, I think, means that someday the waves are going to wake up, things are going to get more exciting, and when they do, he's going to use this daydream to catch fish. Or in the bigger scheme of things, make a living off it.
"Floating flocks of candle swans
Slowly drift across wax ponds"
This part kind of eludes to the Tin Solider; didn't the story mention candle swans and wax ponds? So it could be tying into they're seen as nothing more than toys, or they are actually toys.
"The men all played along to marching drums
and boy did they have fun behind the sea"
I think that since they followed one drum/person so mindlessly, they sunk/marched right off the dock. I think the water has to symbolize death, and since the soldiers are so mindless, they don't see death when they sign up for the war, they just see it as an adventure.
"They sang, so our matching legs are marching clocks
and we're all too small to talk to god
Yes, we're all too smart to talk to god"
The soldiers are taking pride in the way they're able to march so perfectly, and uniformly look the same. I think the part about god is saying that they don't believe in him, and some people look at it as they're not important enough to have to look outside their own little world, or they're smart enough not to believe in something that big.
"Toast the fine folks casting silver crumbs
to us from the dock
Jinxed things ringing as they leak
through tiny cracks in the boardwalk"
The soldiers are eventually going to die, but the people who are on the dock (perhaps as mindless as the soldiers) are throwing valuables for the soldiers. I think the narrator uses the adjective jinxed, because it applies to the irony of the situation. Soldiers are needed for war, and war is usually happening to protect valuable things, a country or goods, and here the people are throwing them off the dock to the soldiers who are going to die..
"Scarecrow now it's time to hatch
sprouting sons and ageless daughters"
A scarecrow is something that protects over crops, so in a way, the soldiers are like scarecrows. The sprouting sons and ageless daughters part is talking about the kids they've already had, sprouting sons, sons that are going to grow up to an age when they can go to war, and ageless daughter, he's saying the daughters age doesn't really matter because they'll never grow up to an age when they're shipped off to war.
"That those watermelon smiles just can't ripen underwater
Just can't ripen underwater"
When people were kids, they use to hold watermelons up to their face so it looked like a huge smile. I'm assuming the age of the watermelon is connected to the age of the child. So the children going off to war are never going to have ripened smiled because you can't grow up when you're dead.
"Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs"
The narrator ended with this because it kind of sums up the whole message of the song. About how easily, and quickly soldiers marching turned into soldiers dying.
"A daydream spills from my corked head Breaks free of my wooden neck"
Okay, so the narrator starts off trying to block daydreams, but he slips up, and the day breaks free.
"Left to nod over sleeping waves Like bobbing bait for bathing cod"
Sleeping waves, I think, means that someday the waves are going to wake up, things are going to get more exciting, and when they do, he's going to use this daydream to catch fish. Or in the bigger scheme of things, make a living off it.
"Floating flocks of candle swans Slowly drift across wax ponds"
This part kind of eludes to the Tin Solider; didn't the story mention candle swans and wax ponds? So it could be tying into they're seen as nothing more than toys, or they are actually toys.
"The men all played along to marching drums and boy did they have fun behind the sea"
I think that since they followed one drum/person so mindlessly, they sunk/marched right off the dock. I think the water has to symbolize death, and since the soldiers are so mindless, they don't see death when they sign up for the war, they just see it as an adventure.
"They sang, so our matching legs are marching clocks and we're all too small to talk to god Yes, we're all too smart to talk to god"
The soldiers are taking pride in the way they're able to march so perfectly, and uniformly look the same. I think the part about god is saying that they don't believe in him, and some people look at it as they're not important enough to have to look outside their own little world, or they're smart enough not to believe in something that big.
"Toast the fine folks casting silver crumbs to us from the dock Jinxed things ringing as they leak through tiny cracks in the boardwalk"
The soldiers are eventually going to die, but the people who are on the dock (perhaps as mindless as the soldiers) are throwing valuables for the soldiers. I think the narrator uses the adjective jinxed, because it applies to the irony of the situation. Soldiers are needed for war, and war is usually happening to protect valuable things, a country or goods, and here the people are throwing them off the dock to the soldiers who are going to die..
"Scarecrow now it's time to hatch sprouting sons and ageless daughters"
A scarecrow is something that protects over crops, so in a way, the soldiers are like scarecrows. The sprouting sons and ageless daughters part is talking about the kids they've already had, sprouting sons, sons that are going to grow up to an age when they can go to war, and ageless daughter, he's saying the daughters age doesn't really matter because they'll never grow up to an age when they're shipped off to war.
"That those watermelon smiles just can't ripen underwater Just can't ripen underwater"
When people were kids, they use to hold watermelons up to their face so it looked like a huge smile. I'm assuming the age of the watermelon is connected to the age of the child. So the children going off to war are never going to have ripened smiled because you can't grow up when you're dead.
"Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs"
The narrator ended with this because it kind of sums up the whole message of the song. About how easily, and quickly soldiers marching turned into soldiers dying.