The WELL: deadsongs.vue.28: Box Of Rain

#25: form ANDY FERGUSON (tnf) Mon 14 Sep 09 11:35

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:35:00 PDT

Andy Ferguson writes:

I want to comment on the song "Box of Rain."

First of all, I believe that this song can be seen in comparison to the Dylan Thomas poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." In the Thomas poem, the poet is urging the dying father to rage against dying as if death is to be fought. In Box of Rain, however, the singer seems to have come to a spiritual acceptance of his father's coming death.

Box of Rain seems to suggest that in death the soul moves on to either another land or another home while the body is returned to the earth. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The "Box of Rain" in the title can easily be interpreted as the planet earth, with the systems of sea and storms and rain, as Hunter has in many ways admited. The Box of Rain, however, could also be interpreted as the human body, where our blood and tears are the rain contained in the physical shells (or boxes) of our skin.

In truth, the Box of Rain could be referring to both planet and body as one and the same. Considered in this manner, there are numerous links between the song "Box of Rain" and "Eyes of the World" with the themes of transition and seasons.

Box of Rain

Look out of any window any morning, any evening, any day Maybe the sun is shining birds are winging or rain is falling from a heavy sky

Eyes of the World

Right outside this lazy summer home you don't have time to call your soul a critic, no Right outside the lazy gate of winter's summer home wondering where the nuthatch winters Wings a mile long just carried the bird away Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world [Read entire topic]

#24: David Dodd (ddodd) Fri 23 Jan 09 13:15

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:15:00 PST

"Shall we go..." [Read entire topic]

#23: John (delphinus) Thu 22 Jan 09 19:25

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:25:00 PST

Hunter counterposes each of these calls to experience and passage stanza by stanza with memory, sleep, and dreamy recollection ending up with the call to inch through dead dreams to another land.

Life may not be "but a dream" but I'd argue for a kinship between memory and dream. [Read entire topic]

#22: John (delphinus) Thu 22 Jan 09 18:48

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:48:00 PST

>Look out of any window

>Walk out of any doorway

>Look into any eyes

>Walk into splintered sunlight

Strike me as calls to experience and transformation that Hunter and Lesh offer, strong because they rely on the basics of intimacy with the world around us and each other, universal because they draw on experiences that we share, immediate because they are so tied into sense experiences of transition (crossing thresholds, looking across boundaries, encountering the other, entering light) [Read entire topic]

#21: Marked from the Day That I was Born (ssol) Thu 15 Jan 09 16:09

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:09:00 PST

> I am blown away by the fact that anything exists at all<

Yes. For this atheist, Reality (such as it is or appears to be) is a pretty good operational definition of a miracle. [Read entire topic]

#20: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Thu 15 Jan 09 15:15

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:15:00 PST

Nicely put. Are we touring a fluke? [Read entire topic]

#19: John (delphinus) Tue 13 Jan 09 12:43

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:43:00 PST

Leaving the unknowns that bracket our fleeting existence aside for the moment.

Whenever I think about it, I am blown away by the fact that anything exists at all. Talk about unreasonable. Makes sense to me that this would be a productive conundrum for mythopoesis over the eons.

Mythology abhors a vacuum. [Read entire topic]

#18: Hugh Watkins (hughw1936uk) Thu 8 Jan 09 14:29

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:29:00 PST

even Mac users think that they are "saved"

and to slim effectively needs the dedication of a born again christian [Read entire topic]

#17: David Gans (tnf) Thu 8 Jan 09 11:05

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:05:00 PST

And a worthy subject, for sure. I just grow weary of people who think they know the unknowable forcing others to behave in accord with their presumptions.

<http://dgans.com/lyrics.html#SaveUs> [Read entire topic]

#16: Hugh Watkins (hughw1936uk) Thu 8 Jan 09 00:23

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:23:00 PST

#15 DG not a worry but a subject of discussion in every language that exists and the basis of local philosophy or religion [Read entire topic]