The Decemberists - Don't Carry It All Meaning

Don't Carry It All Lyrics

Here we come to a turning of the season,
witness to the arc towards the sun,
the neighbors blessed burden within reason,
becomes a burden borne of all in one,
but nobody nobody knows,
let the yoke fall from our shoulders,
don't carry it all...

1. anonymous

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   Feb 11th 2022 !⃝

   The song is definitely a metaphor about carrying the weight of the death of a loved one and how it does not have to be a singular burden to bear.
2. anonymous

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   Jun 4th 2014 !⃝

   Nice interpretation on the "in takes a village" but I would go with the child becoming an adult, or maybe a child being born, rather than dying since the song seems somewhat celebratory and positive.
   It sounds like something new and good has come about, and everyone is committing to pitching in to make it work.
3. anonymous

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   Sep 27th 2011 !⃝

   Carrying a canoe? Really? A yoke is also a harness used by man or beast for plowing fields. But how can one not see this as a metaphor of a season's change as the death of a child. The blessed burden refers to an entire community's efforts in raising a child (i.e. the adage "it takes a village to raise a child" and the subsequent grief shared by a community after the loss of that child.
4. anonymous

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   Apr 4th 2011 !⃝

   A song about how carrying a canoe is a metaphor for carrying the weight of the world on one's shoulders.
   
   The yoke is a moulded piece of wood that attaches from one gunnel to the other of a canoe. The yoke is used when a person carries a canoe by themselves. Also known as 'soloing' a canoe.
   
   The song is also about how to just sit back and relax. Leave the worries to others sometimes.
5. anonymous

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   Jan 26th 2011 !⃝

   Communism.