Lyrics
You're going home
You are returning to your home.
Across the fields and rivers
The journey involves crossing fields and rivers.
You're going home
Reiteration of the idea that you are going home.
Across the ocean wide
The journey includes crossing a vast ocean.
To the shade of an oak tree in old New Jersey
Your destination is under the shade of an oak tree in old New Jersey.
Where the green growing leaves block out the white-cloud sky
Describing the setting with green leaves blocking the sky.
And there you'll lie
You will rest or lie down there.
When you were alive
Reflecting on your popularity when alive.
Everybody loved you
During your lifetime, everyone loved you.
And now you're just a joke
After death, you are now regarded humorously or with less seriousness.
Now that you've died.
Emphasizing the change in perception after death.
O happy one, you, who, young and full of pride
Addressing a person, possibly Joyce Kilmer, expressing joy and pride.
Left earth well before your singing time was done
Despite youthful pride, the person left the Earth prematurely.
All wounds of Time the graveyard flowers hide
Time conceals the wounds, symbolized by graveyard flowers.
Joyce Kilmer, why'd you sign up for the army
Raising a question about Joyce Kilmer's decision to join the army.
To leave behind four children and a wife?
Questioning the choice to leave behind family for military service.
O happy moth that flew into the sun—
Comparing the person to a moth that met its end chasing the sun.
A German bullet in your brain at 31—
Highlighting the tragic death by a German bullet at the age of 31.
If there is no glory waiting in the world to come
Pondering the absence of glory in an afterlife, questioning the sacrifice.
Losing yourself, what have you won?
Raising doubts about the value of losing oneself for a cause.
What have you won?
Reiteration of the question, emphasizing the uncertainty of the gains.
Late at night, I like to go out walking
Describing a personal habit of walking at night.
I pace around the park that bears your name
Walking in a park named after Joyce Kilmer.
Well your body's mouldering in a Champagne graveyard
Noting the physical decay of the body in a Champagne graveyard.
I'm worried that your spirit's doing the same
Expressing concern about the spiritual well-being of the departed.
I'm worried it was all a gorgeous lie
Doubting the authenticity of the experiences or memories.
That it was all a lie
Suspecting that the entire narrative may have been a beautiful deception.
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