I just heard this in Minneapolis and even though I have heard the song, I was either too busy to listen to all the lyrics and appreciate how mighty this song is in both a spiritual and musical sense.

I also was unaware that she borrows the actual verse from the original poem.

Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus:

Ah! that day of tears and mourning!
From the dust of earth returning
man for judgment must prepare him;
Spare, O God, in mercy spare him!

I love how her music reflects her extensive literary knowledge. What a gift!

Lacrimosa is quite an amazing song, it's very powerful!
I don't actually have an opinion on what it means though :P

By the way, vermtown, you can listen to this song on the official part of this website. It's on her album Songs!

I can't believe she played this live! It's one of my favorites!!!!

she actually played this live?? this year?? :O

I think this song is just all about the human tendency to do silly, stupid things, sometimes for pride, sometimes for no reason at all.

The human mind operates in a generally illogical manner. Or rather, we follow our own bizarre logic that tends to end up in ruins, i.e. Icarus.

that's a solid theory! i like that... care to expound on it a bit?

Okay, but I'm apologizing in advance if I descend into gibberish.

"We keep on burying our dead
We keep on planting their bones in the ground
But they won't grow, the sun doesn't help
The rain doesn't help."

This verse really sets the tone of the song for me. We do things, we don't know why we do them, we do them for no logical reason, and yet we do them anyways. (Yes folks, that is the most times the phrase "we do them" has been used in a single sentence.) It's just human tendency. Certain patterns we fall into that have roots somewhere deep within our brains, and maybe once upon a time had some kind of explanation, but is now merely habit. Bones don't grow, and yet we are compelled to bury our dead anyhow.

"If my garden would have a fence
Then the rabbits couldn't just come in
And sit on the grass and eat all the flowers
And shit."

This I think, is once again alluding to the human mind. If we had more barriers within our minds, then maybe rabbits wouldn't be able to tramp along in and eat all the flowers and shit. But we have this free flowing consciousness that allows us to have all this thought that isn't always related, and isn't always logical. Thought grows, though crumbles. Our gardens don't have fences, so to speak. Maybe the garden would function more effectively if it did have fences, but it does not, and that is just how the garden is.

The Icarus verses are relatively self explanatory. How do we explain ourselves? How can we justify our actions? Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, despite his father's warning, hoping for mercy in his foolish, very human, decision. (Holy run on sentence...)

"And all we've got
Is a giant crop
Of names
And dates."

I included the verse above just because I adore this as a way to describe a cemetery. Wow.

nice! i especially like the bit about the garden.

these seem like very regina-y speculations haha

Oh I really like what you're saying, almostspotless! Very cool analysis, and I agree completely.

On the issue of Icarus, a lot of the poetry I've read relating to the story focuses on the way his fall is ignored by the townspeople, and I think this fits the song: "(frantically) Hi! I'm Icarus! (despairedly) I'm falling..." I think this sentiment of invisibility of plight fits in with your ideas on the verse, but maybe not.