Interpretations:Pencil Rain

Pencil Rain is clearly about the honor of men going to war. A group of infantrymen begin watching the "yonder blue" (a reference to the airforce) for an air raid. Pencils are the shape of missiles and symbolize them in the song. After the air raid is over and many people and buildings are destroyed. No one who knows about the attack can "think of a nobler cause" than to die in battle.

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Have you ever endured a three hour long final exam?

Then you know what this song is about!

Hear hear!

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In the instrumental bridge, the morse code in the background translates to "Ay, ay, ay, ay, canta y no llores," which is a line from the spanish song "Cielito Lindo," or "Pretty Little Sky." The morse lyric reads, in english, "Ay, ay, ay, ay, sing and don't cry." This seems to relate to the song Pencil Rain because this lyric is telling the sky not to cry, or not to RAIN.

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This song, to me, refers to taking standardized tests. The final verse is the moment that the proctors tell the students, "Pencils down," and they all clatter to the desks. At that moment the test is over, and the fate of the student is decided.

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Taken more literally, the song is about soldiers awaiting the start of a battle in which they are expected to die. The grandiose music and expressions of pagentry and nobility belie the fact the soldiers can do little except wait to be shot at. The narrator further adds to the dissonance by substituting pencils for bullets (both are filled with "lead"). In the end, their "nobile cause" is merely "perishing in the pencil rain", or being killed.

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"Finale of Seem" is a line from the poem "The Emperor of Ice Cream" by Wallace Stevens. The poem is all greek to me, but it seems to be about death, which would fall into the examples of soldiers awaiting death (or test-takers awaiting the death of future dreams).

See if you can make more sense of the following poem than I can:

"Call the roller of big cigars, The muscular one, and bit him whip In kitchen cups concupiscent curds. Let the wenches dawdle in such dress As they are used to wear, and let the boys bring flowers in last month's newspapers. Let be be finale of seem (**'...be be..' is not a typo**) The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.

Take from the dresser of deal, LAcking the three glass knobs, that sheet On which she ebroidered three fantails once And spread it so as to cover her face If her norny feet protrude they come To show how cold she is, and dumb. Let the lamp affix its beam. The Only emperor is the emperor of ice cream."

ALSO: "The possible dream" seems to be a pun from the famous Don Quixote song "Dream the Impossible Dream", but since it's just about passing a test this dream is totaly possible.

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I imagine an orange, muddy river in Nam, with men shooting, shouting. Suddenly, both sides can hear a clatter of pencils arriving from the skies. Out of sheer curiosity, all stop firing and gaze in amazement and horror as thousands of pencils fall from the sky, litter the ground, snap, clatter, and create a nerveracking experience. All the men retreat, but the raid causes many casualty. Afterwards, graves are set up for all the lives lost, each decorated with a no. 2 pencil.

Yeah, I think this song is about a rain of pencils during a war.

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It's about people who didn't put their hands inside the puppet head. The idea of being subsumed into the bureaucracy of a large corporation is comforting to many college graduates, but it repulses many with artistic temperaments. --Nehushtan 01:30, 27 Jan 2006 (EST)

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It appears to me that "finale of seem" would mean the end of what one believes to be normal, and the beginning of a new way that seems absurd from this side of reality. For instance, a rain of pencils falling from the sky. Bacon warrior 00:12, 28 Feb 2006 (CST)

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My friend just takes the song literally. (He says it's his favorite TMBG song EVER, I'd put it in my top 10). There are pencils falling from the sky, and it's dangerous. It doesn't happen too often, and when it does, it's like the Running of the Bulls in Spain. People run around in it, and people die. But like the Running of the Bulls, such a death is honorable. I see his point. [jkazoo]

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A bit random, but what I always imagine is all these toy soldiers lining up for battle and then some kid throws pencils at all of them and kills them. Ow.

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