Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell Lyrics

Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell Lyrics

Carrie & Lowell Lyrics by Sufjan Stevens

In “Carrie & Lowell,” Sufjan Stevens is a child again or, more specifically, the child character in the family of man drama that often but not always centers on the story of love given, or love forsaken –but isn’t that the same thing to the poet? That the love Stevens sings about having left or given or been born to –thank you, Carrie– is a perceptible wound not only on the singer’s throat, but his sleeve: he wears love’s incomprehensibility, and the deep incomprehensibility of being a son, like a backing vocal on “Carrie & Lowell,” which is also filled with colors, hearts, trees, conclusions, and beginnings, all adding up to a special kind of intimacy.

Carrie and Lowell
Such a long time ago
Like a dead horse
Meadowlark, drive your arrow

Season of hope (after the flood)
Valentine, spurn my sorrow
Head on the floorboards (covered in blood)
Drunk as a horsefly
Climb on the mattress pad
Twist my arm

Under the pear tree
Shadows and light conspiring
Covered bridge, I scream
Cottage Grove shade, invite me

I will bow down (Dido’s Lament)
Lord of the ancient waters
From the backyard (as far as she went)
Carrie surprised me
Erebus on my back
My lucky charm

Carried by stones
Fairyland all around us
Like a dead horse
Sign of your children’s fever

Carrie, come home (Thorazine’s friend)
Holding your hands with opal
Like a dead horse (Shall we ascend?)
Flight of the mayfly
Ephemera on my back
She breaks my arm