What do you think Eli, the Barrow Boy means?

No ads (at all)
No AI content
Guaranteed

The Decemberists - Eli, the Barrow Boy Meaning

Tagged:   No tags, suggest one.
Album cover for Eli, the Barrow Boy album cover

Eli, the Barrow Boy Lyrics

Eli, the barrow boy of the old town
Sells coal and marigolds and he cries out
All down the day
Below the tamaracks he is crying
"Corn cobs and candlewax for the buying!"
All down the day

"Would I could afford to buy my love a fine...

  1. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 10th 2011 !⃝

    Eli was a poor man obsessed with a woman who refused to be with him on account of his poverty.

    Driven mad by her cold-hearted practicality of not wanting to marry a barrow boy salesman he kills and buries her in a pine grove.

    After the madness fades he realizes what he has done and decides to kill himself so that he will have a second chance to be with her in the afterlife.

    Alas for poor Eli, he has committed both murder and suicide. He may be buried in a churchyard but now he is pushing his wheelbarrow in hell, forever separated from his love who is presumably in heavan.


More The Decemberists songs »


 


 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]




Just Posted

I'll Be anonymous
Carry Me, Carrie anonymous
Bohemian Rhapsody anonymous
Prophecy anonymous
When The Music's Over anonymous
Jumpin' Jack Flash anonymous
Otherside anonymous
My Name is Allen anonymous
Snowblind anonymous
Bungle in the Jungle anonymous
Morning Has Broken anonymous
Cactus Practice anonymous
Tangled Up In Blue anonymous
You Got Lucky anonymous
Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You anonymous

(We won't give out your email)