Casimir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Stevens
How simplicity in lyricism amplifies emotion by evoking youth
When I first heard Casimir Pulaski Day, it made me cry. I have listened to Sufjan Stevens before, but his music never really resonated with me until recently (with an exception for They Are Night Zombies!!!). Sufjan’s music is a little softer than what I usually listen to, so an emotional mood needed to strike me down before I appreciated the majority of his music. And this state hit me recently, and Casimir Pulaski Day was the song that ran me over.
This song is clearly and plainly about the narrator’s experience as a teenager losing a female friend to bone cancer. Which of course is an experience fraught with emotion, but I think this song is so striking because of the conflict between the simplicity of the melody, delivery, and lyrics and the crushing grief of this experience. Teenagerhood and youth are embodied in the lyrics, yet the subject is one of the heaviest, most unifying experiences that humans have to go through. How this loss impacts the narrator’s religious beliefs is a major focus. I am not religious, but to me, the impact to the narrator’s religion is analogous to my own relationship with The World.
"Goldenrod and the 4H stone The things I brought you when I found out You had cancer of the bone"
The first verse establishes the scenario. The narrator is singing to a ‘you,’ who has bone cancer. But the goldenrod and the 4H stone immediately establishes the youth of the narrator. Goldenrod is a yellow flower that the narrator could have picked up on his walk to visit Her, while 4H is an environmentally-focused youth organization. These offerings to Her are two things that a teenager has access to. These also speak to me of slightly rural, American suburbia.
"Your father cried on the telephone And he drove his car into the Navy yard Just to prove that he was sorry"
The main thing that I will highlight in this verse is that Her father is described in an active state, unsure how to handle his emotions upon learning his daughter has cancer.
"In the morning, through the window shade When the light pressed up against your shoulderblade I could see what you were reading All the glory that the lord has made And the complications you could do without When I kissed you on the mouth"
These two verses make up the first chorus. In the first verse, we have the first mention of “the morning,” which will have a double meaning throughout this song with its homophone “the mourning.” The second verse strikes me as full of youth, just like the 4H stone and the goldenrod. The narrator mentions the complications She doesn’t need, and I first think of the complications from her cancer. But the next line quickly reveals that the complications are actually in regard to a kiss between the narrator and Her. This is such a quintessential teenage experience, a kiss is monumental. Something you knew would happen eventually, but finally its here and now what does that mean going forward? So monumental, it might be distracting Her from her cancer. Not to mention the inexperience elicited by kissing “on the mouth,” it is only in are youth where we need to specify where exactly a kiss has taken place.
"Tuesday night at the Bible study We lift our hands and pray over your body But nothing ever happens"
In this next verse, the connection to religion of both the narrator and Her is established. This verse reminds me of a Bible group I was a part of in elementary school in a small, rural part of the south. As soon as religion is evoked, it is immediately in question, “nothing ever happens” despite their prayers.
"I remember at Michael's house In the living room when you kissed my neck And I almost touched your blouse"
Now with this verse, it is teenage nostalgia. They are at a friend’s house, maybe for a party, and She kisses the narrator’s neck (once again, specifying where the kiss is). This shows an elevation of their romantic relationship, from mouth to neck, more intimate, more suggestive. And then the next line is sweetly innocent. To the narrator, it is notable that he almost touched her blouse, but not quite.
"In the morning at the top of the stairs When your father found out what we did that night And you told me you were scared All the glory when you ran outside With your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied And you told me not to follow you"
This is the second chorus. The first verse implies to me that they had sex, likely for the first time for both. Then there is a juxtaposition of engaging in the adult act of sex, and then being scared of a parent’s reaction. But I interpret the line, “and you told me you were scared,” to have a double meaning. I think She is both scared of her dad’s reaction, but also she was scared before they had sex. I will generalize to say everyone is scared before they first have sex, especially women, I know I was. But She, in this song, chooses to have sex likely because of her illness. I think it’s possible that Her impending death accelerated the relationship between the narrator and her, but I don’t think this possibly detracts from their shared experience. She chooses to experience what is often a painful, negative, sometimes frightening experience for girls, so that she can experience an element of humanity and life while she has the ability to. This thought was one of the things that brought me to tears when listening to this song on repeat. She is brave and She is alive for having done something so human despite the fear.
In the second verse, Her “shirt tucked in” and Her “shoes untied” makes me think of adolescence. School uniform shirts must be tucked in. And it was only ever in my youth where I thought it was appropriate to have untied shoes. But the overall verse is a representation of an early death to me. She runs outside, in her tucked in uniform shirt, without having the time to tie her shoes, and she forbids the narrator to follow her out. In other songs by Sufjan that discuss loss, he considers following those who die (Fourth of July). But I see this last line as Her telling the narrator that he cannot yet go where she is going.
"Sunday night when I cleaned the house I found the card where you wrote it out With the pictures of your mother"
Throughout the song, there are two mentions of Her father in an active state, he is certainly alive. However, this is the only mention of Her mother, and she is in pictures. This makes me feel that Her mom is already gone. Maybe when the narrator finds this card, mom and Daughter are both gone. I think that maybe She felt a little less scared, with Her mother already passed, as she approached the end of her life. She is not the first human to die, and she will not be alone once she goes, with Her mother waiting for her. The narrator and Her are both religious, I think She was comforted by the thought that she would be with Her mom. Despite my lack of religious views, it brings me comfort too.
"On the floor at the great divide With my shirt tucked in and my shoes untied I am crying in the bathroom"
I am not sure, but this verse makes me think the narrator is working at a restaurant called the Great Divide. He mirrors Her, in a youthful state of shirt tucked in and shoes untied. In this verse, his state strikes me more as dishevelment from grief than did her previous state. He escapes to the bathroom to cry over the impending loss of Her, while still tied down in the mundanity of suburban teenage life, working in a restaurant. While She ran out to her end and bade him not follow, he is stuck, he in fact has to get more interior by hiding out in the bathroom. He must deal with the grief of the situation, he cannot leave.
"In the morning when you finally go And the nurse runs in with her head hung low And the cardinal hits the window In the morning in the winter shade On the first of March, on the holiday I thought I saw you breathing"
In the first verse, She dies. She dies in the morning, and the nurse relays the news to the narrator. A cardinal bird runs into the window. While cardinals (like most birds or things found in nature) seem to have a miriad of symbolic meanings, it is associated with reassurance and connection to a loved one after their death. I think the cardinal hitting the window represents the narrator’s crisis of faith. A message from Her is sent, but it is not a peaceful, nor graceful one.
In the second verse, I think “the morning” is rather “the mourning” now. The narrator is in a state of mournful disbelief. He is not even sure if she has actually died. I learned this from Lyric Genius, but the mentioned holiday is actually the song’s namesake Casimir Pulaski Day, which is celebrated on the first monday of March in Illinois in honor of a Polish soldier. School is not held on this day, so when she dies, maybe it feels to the narrator that school across Illinois is disbanded in her honor. Despite her youth, she will never again return to school, yet the narrator will once the holiday is over.
"All the glory that the Lord has made And the complications when I see His face In the morning in the window All the glory when he took our place But He took my shoulders and He shook my face And He takes and He takes and He takes"
This is the final chorus and the last two verses of the song. In the first verse, the narrator is struggling with his relationship with God. He uses the word “complications” again. Earlier in the song I thought that the word “complications” (referencing a kiss) emphasized the youth of the narrator and Her. Now his “complications” are with seeing God’s face once She dies. This song is the ending of his adolescence, he is left behind to wrestle with his connection to The World and the Lord, and his “complications” are no longer sweet. The narrator sees God’s face in the [mourning] in the window, referencing the cardinal running into the window. This message in the form of a red bird from God or from Her is not easy to interpret for him. And it is this that he, and most people, will wrestle with for the remainder of their lives.
This final verse emphasizes the conflicting relationship between the narrator and God. God brought glory to the world by sacrificing his son for the sins of humanity. God also takes the narrator’s shoulders, bringing the narrator into His care. God shakes the narrator’s face, I think to remind him that he is still alive, that he is within the glory that God left for him on Earth. Yet, God takes and God takes and God takes.
Do you agree with my interpretation? Anything you think I missed?