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Running Head: Making Sense

English 310, Essay #1: Literary Analysis

Making Sense of It All: Reading, Interpreting, and Understanding Difficult Lyrics

Professor M. Woodman

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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard

(Tom Waits, Blue Valentine studio version, 1978)

I come in on a night train with an arm full of boxcarsOn the wings of a magpie, cross a hooligan night

And I busted up a chifforobe way out by the KokomoCooked up a mess of mulligan and got into a fight

Whistlin' past the graveyard, steppin' on a crackMean motherhubbard, Papa one eyed Jack

You probably seen me sleepin' out by the railroad tracksGo on and ask the Prince of darkness,

what about all that smoke come from the stackSometimes I kill myself a jackal, suck out all the bloodSteal myself a station wagon, drivin' through the mud

I'm gonna be whistlin past the graveyard, steppin' on a crackMean motherhubbard, Papa one eyed Jack

I know you seen my headlights, and the honkin' of my hornI'm callin' out my bloodhounds, chase the Devil through the corn

Last night I chugged the Mississippi, now that sucker's dry as a boneI was born in a taxi cab, I'm never goin' home

Whistlin past the graveyard, steppin' on a crackMean motherhubbard, Papa one eyed Jack

My eyes have seen the glory of the draining of the ditchI only come to Baton Rouge I gotta find myself a witch

I'm gonna snatch me up a couple of 'em every time it rainsYou'll see a locomotive, probably thinkin' its a train

Whistlin past the graveyard, steppin' on a crackMean motherhubbard, Papa one eyed Jack

What you think is the sunshine is just a twinkle in my eyeThat ring around my finger's called the 4th of July

When I get a little bit lonesome and a tear falls from my cheekThere's gonna be an ocean in the middle of the week

Whistlin past the graveyard, steppin' on a crackMean motherhubbard, Papa one eyed Jack

I come into town on a night train, with an arm full of boxcarsOn the wings of a magpie, cross a hooligan night

I'm gonna tear me off a rainbow and wear it for a tieI never told the truth so I can never tell a lie

Whistlin past the graveyard, steppin' on a crackA mean motherhubbard, Papa one eyed Jack

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Notes:

(1) Boxcar, an armful of: Grab an armful of boxcars. To Jump on a moving freight train in order to get free transportation c1915. Hobo use (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

(2) Hooligan n.: A hoodlum; a ruffian; a tough guy (Source: Dictionary of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner)

(3) Chifforobe n.: A tall piece of furniture typically having drawers on one side and space for hanging clothes on the other (Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin - Third Edition)

(4) Mulligan stew n.:- A stew made of any available meat(s) or vegetable(s). Orig. hobo use, perhaps from "salmagrundi". Often used facetiously about any stewlike food, however excellent (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner). - A hobo dish containing just about anything you have handy. How to make just like they make it at the yearly hobo convention in Britt. Iowa. "Britt Mulligan Stew" = 450 lbs. of Beef, 900 lbs. of Potatoes, 250 lbs. of carrots, 35 lbs. of green peppers, 300 lbs. of cabbage, 100 lbs. of turnips, 10 lbs. of parsnips, 150 lbs. of tomatoes, 20 lbs. of chili peppers, 25 lbs. of rice, 60 lbs. of celery, 1 lb bay leaves, 24 gallon of mixed vegetables, 10 lbs. of kitchen bouquet flavoring, about 400 loaves of bread are served, a total of 5000, 8 oz. cups ordered to serve the stew. (Submitted by Ulf Berggren. eGroups Tom Waits Discussionlist. March, 2000).

(5) Mother Hubbard:- Phrase comes from the nursery rhyme: "Old Mother Hubbard. Went to the cupboard. To get her poor dog a bone; But when she got there, The cupboard was bare, And so the poor dog had none. But when she got there, The cupboard was bare, And so the poor doggie had none." (Source: Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner).- Mother-hubba/ -hubbard n. [20C] euph. for motherf****** (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9)

(6) One eyed Jack: 1. adj. [1960s+] (US) in poker, used of a king or jack, esp. as wild cards. [the design of the face depicted in profile on cards] 2a. adj. [early-mid-19C] (US) crooked, dishonest. 2b. adj. [late 19C+] (orig. US) inferior, inadequate, unimportant] (Source: "Cassell's Dictionary Of Slang". Jonathon Green. Cassel & Co., 1998. ISBN: 0-304-35167-9).

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Making Sense of It All: Reading, Interpreting, and Understanding Difficult Lyrics

“I come in on a night train with an arm full of boxcars” is the opening line of Tom

Waits’s song “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard” from his Blue Valentine album (1978). What does it

mean to “come in on a night train,” and just how can one have “an arm full of boxcars”?

It is no coincidence that the lyrics to your favorite song probably sound like poetry, for

poetry’s origins lie in song, where the music originally functioned as a mnemonic device to

trigger the singer’s memory. Only with the advent of the written word (and the printing press)

did people cleave poetry and music into two separate categories. One clue to deciphering a

song’s meaning is to begin with its sound. What is the tempo? Is the song slow or fast? What

instruments does the song employ? Does the singer emphasize certain words over others? Are

there any changes in rhythm or melody?

From an auditory standpoint, “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard” sounds like a blues or early

rock song. It has a repeated blues riff in the verse, and an upbeat, walking blues line in the

chorus. Tom Waits takes these simple musical forms and composes a tune reminiscent of early

eclectic and electric blues, like songs that came out of the Midwest in the 1940s and 1950s. This

repeated riff gives the song a rhythm that propels the song forward in a sinister, lurching stutter-

step. Furthermore, Waits begins the song by singing in a wordless “scat” style singing in which

a person uses his or her voice in a non-verbal style reminiscent of a musical instrument. This

style of singing was popular in the jazz and blues clubs of the 1930s and 1940s, so even though

Waits wrote and recorded “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard” in 1978, its retrospective style

hearkens back to earlier era with its own connotations of dark, smoky nightclubs. Finally,

Waits’s guttural voice lends further credence to the spooky, criminal vibe.

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Do these auditory characteristics have any parallels to the lyrics? To examine the song as

a text, start by reading the song’s title, which often provides clues to the song’s meaning. When

we look at individual words and phrases, we should take note of both their denotative and

connotative meanings. Denotation refers to what the word literally signifies. If you look up a

word in a dictionary, you will find its denotative meaning. Connotation refers to what the word

implies based on context and cultural associations. For example, from a denotative position, an

“icy” heart is one that is below the freezing point; from a connotative position, an “icy” heart is

one that lacks compassion or sympathy. From a denotative position, “whistlin’ past the

graveyard” is clear: a person (probably a man) whistles as he passes a cemetery. From a

connotative position, “graveyard” gives us images of death, mortality, and stasis, which contrasts

the “whistlin’” that usually indicates lightheartedness and joy. Furthermore, Tom Waits has

elected to remove the “g” from “whistling,” which makes the word, and thus the tone, less

formal and morose than one would expect in a song about death. Therefore, from the title alone,

we have a setting—the graveyard—and a tone (or attitude of the writer) that opposes or

contradicts the traditional mood of the setting (carefree rather than worrisome).

We can also look at other literary devices, such as persona, symbolism, metaphor and

simile, allusion, parallelism, and antithesis. Persona refers to the speaker of the lyrics and the

mask one wears or presents to the world. When Tom Waits sings “I come in on a night train

with an arm full of box cars” (1), we do not look behind the singer Tom Waits to see where the

train is parked or to see where he set his box cars down. Rather, we see Tom Waits as signing

from the perspective or point-of-view of a character who has stolen a ride on a freight train. One

fallacy beginning writers often commit is in assuming every song (or poem) is autobiographical

and that the poem or song is about something that specifically happened to this person. While

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some songs (and poems) are indeed autobiographical, the vast majority are not (though they may

have an autobiographical foundation). The persona is important in that it will give us clues as to

the song’s meaning, so when we see an “I,” we should ask ourselves, “Who is this person

talking? What assumptions can I make about him or her based on what he or she is saying?” In

“Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard,” the persona makes claims such as “When I get a little bit

lonesome and a tear falls from my cheek / There’s gonna be an ocean in the middle of the week”

(28-29) and “I’m gonna tear me off a rainbow and wear it for a tie” (34). From a literary

viewpoint, these exaggerations are called hyperbole, and this hyperbolic braggadocio indicates

the persona is wearing the mask of a supremely confident individual, one capable of

“impossible” tasks. Furthermore, the persona claims, “I was born in a taxi cab, I’m never goin’

home” (17), which implies a transient personality, one who refuses (or is unable) to find the

stability a home would provide. The persona also makes use of a specific vocabulary and dialect

when he refers to an “armful of boxcars” (1), which is hobo slang for stealing a ride on a moving

freight train. Therefore, we can make the following conclusions about the persona: the speaker

is a solitary individual who seems to be constantly on the move, and he seems to operate outside

the boundaries of polite, legal society.

While persona refers to the personality of the speaker, symbolism refers to the abstract,

implied characteristics of the objects that surround the speaker. For something to be a symbol,

there must be two components: one tangible, physical thing, and the intangible emotions or

concepts the thing represents. Symbols can exist on two separate levels: the archetypal or the

context-specific. Archetypes, a concept codified by the psychologist Carl Jung, refer to symbols

that operate across cultures; in other words, “An archetype is an idealized form or model of a

person, object, or place, from which derive individual examples and permutations” (Woodman,

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2010, slide 4). Thus, Child would be an archetypal symbol of dependency. Context-specific

symbols refer to symbols that have meaning for a particular culture or sub-culture. Thus, a

snowman would have no symbolic significance for a desert culture. One example of a context-

specific symbol is the use of colors; in Western culture, black is the color associated with

mourning and funerals, but in many Eastern cultures, white carries this symbolic meaning. Thus,

a symbol that uses the color black would not carry the same symbolic meaning for a person from

America as it would for a person from Japan.

“Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard” has any number of archetypes and symbols, but the ones

that seem to be most important (in that they are repeated) have to do with a graveyard, a train,

night, and water. What do these concrete things represent?

The graveyard in this song represents, in locomotive terms, the end of the line: death. A

train, on the other hand, represents movement, travel, and the spaces between places. The train

is significant in that “the kind of transport used […] can say much about the [individual’s]

subjective sense of attractiveness, self-esteem, social status, personality integration, and mode of

adjustment to life” (Stevens, 1998, p. 291). In this case, the train carries not passengers but

freight, which signifies that the individual operates in an isolated manner on the fringes of

society: a psychologist might label him socially maladjusted. Likewise, the train tracks

symbolize a path, a road by which the persona may be seeking his center: “The road leading to

the center is a ‘difficult road’ [….] because it is, in fact, a rite of the passage from the profane to

the sacred, from the ephemeral and illusory to reality and eternity, from death to life, from man

to the divinity” (Eliade, 1954, p. 18). Thus, the persona finds himself on a path to the center,

though it is ambiguous as to whether that center is the town, the chaos the town can never

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provide, or death itself. In the song, though, the persona celebrates this ambiguity and

disconnect.

Continuing this obscurity, images of night and darkness represent death, danger, and a

lack of clarity. In the song, however, the persona contrasts these ideas with symbols of light and

vision: headlights, a twinkle in his eye, and the rainbow. This dichotomy is not unique, for “light

and darkness symbolism has shaped the mythologies, cosmologies, and religions of all peoples

of the earth, darkness being equated with an original chaos, light with the bringing of order”

(Stevens, 1998, p. 142). In this song, the persona seems to represent both the dark and the light:

he travels in darkness and chaos, but he carries (or claims to carry) symbols of light and order.

Finally, the song has a number of images of water: rain, tears, mud, rivers, and blood.

While a train is a fairly context-specific symbol, water is an archetypal symbol of purification,

life, and eternity. However, the song plays with these symbols, so instead of a flowing river,

“that sucker’s dry as a bone” (16), and instead of a healthy canal, there is the “draining of the

ditch” (20). As Stevens (1998) writes, “Just as water is indispensible to life, it can also be

devastating in its effects,” and water “determines a cosmic rhythm of annihilation and renewal

which forms the background to all mythic cataclysms and apocalypses” (p. 130-1). In the song,

there is both flood—“There’s gonna be an ocean in the middle of the week” (29)—and drought

(of the dry Mississippi), which implies devastation through both an excess and deficiency of

water. This dichotomy could relate to “the symbolic identity of water with the unconscious

psyche” (Stevens, 1998, p. 132) in that the speaker himself seems to be too full (of claims, of

confidence) and too empty (of substance, of connection to other people).

With these symbols and archetypes, the song utilizes at least three binaries, contrasting

images of movement and stasis (the train and the graveyard), clarity and obscurity (the light and

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dark), and health and decay (the rain and the empty channels). The song continues these sets of

opposition through metaphors, similes, parallelism, and antithesis.

Metaphors and similes are similar to symbols in that they compare or equate two things.

However, while symbols connect a physical object to a non-physical idea, metaphors and similes

connect two physical objects in order to give one object certain characteristics the other

possesses. The difference between a metaphor and a simile is that a metaphor carries with it any

number of shared characteristics, while a simile generally limits the resemblance to one or two

shared characteristics. Thus, when Tom Waits writes that the Mississippi is “dry as a bone” (16),

he is using a simile to illustrate one quality: that of dryness and desiccation. However, when

Waits writes “What you think is the sunshine is just a twinkle in my eye” (26), he is using a

metaphor to illustrate a number of qualities: an imbalance of power between the speaker and

audience, the persona’s control over the natural world, and a discrepancy between appearance

and reality. Thus, the metaphors and similes intensify the binaries and hyperbole.

Continuing this exploration, “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard” uses multiple allusions to

further its tone. An allusion is a reference to a specific cultural, historical, or literary person,

place, or thing. Allusions combine with connotations and function as context-specific symbols

in order to lend additional meaning. In the case of this song, Waits alludes to specific

superstitions, figures, places, and things. The chorus features two allusions to superstition in one

line: “I’m gonna be whistlin’ past the graveyard, steppin’ on a crack” (5). According to

superstition, one should whistle when one walks past the graveyard in order to keep evil spirits at

bay; in whistling, the persona avoids bad luck. According to another superstition, one should

avoid stepping on cracks in the pavement because stepping on these cracks invites evil spirits

into one’s life. Here, however, the person does indeed step on a crack, deliberately so, it seems.

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Thus, the allusions to superstition indicate the persona is simultaneously inviting and avoiding

bad luck. The chorus also features two cultural allusions: “Mean motherhubbard, Papa one-eyed

Jack” (6). From a nursery rhyme, Mother Hubbard is a character who tries to feed her dog but

finds the cupboard bare. Conversely, “motherhubbard” may be a euphemism for a profanity (I’ll

let you figure out which one). A one-eyed Jack is a playing card (one of the “face cards”) often

considered “wild” in that, like the Joker, it can stand for anything. These cultural allusions, then,

further the theme of trickery and present an additional opposition: poverty versus wealth. On a

more cultural-specific level, allusions make “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard” a specifically

American song; the allusion to the 4th of July indicates an American celebration (of

independence), and the allusions to the Mississippi River and to the city of Baton Rouge indicate

a specific setting in the south (Louisiana) with a history of transit. Additionally, Waits uses two

religious references to the devil or “the Prince of Darkness” (8). Here, however, the persona is in

control: “I’m callin’ out my bloodhounds, chase the devil through the corn” (15). As with the

other literary devices, these allusions deepen the hyperbole with which the persona speaks as he

is “whistlin’ past the graveyard.”

Finally, it is important to look at a song’s syntax, its sentence structure. With regard to

syntax, Tom Waits makes noticeable use of both parallelism and antithesis. Parallelism consists

of ideas of similar syntactical construction in order to illustrate a connection or similarity. In

“Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard,” there are multiple examples of parallelism; one such example is

“What you think is the sunshine is just a twinkle in my eye / That ring around my finger’s called

the 4th of July” (26-7). Here, Waits uses parallelism to develop the persona’s deceptive and

grandiose personality. However, the song also features antithesis, which consists of ideas of

similar syntactical construction in order to illustrate a contrast or dissimilarity. The chorus

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features two such antitheses: “Whistlin’ past the graveyard, steppin’ on a crack / Mean

motherhubbard, Papa one-eyed Jack.” The first line sets up the antithesis of the persona both

avoiding (whistling past the graveyard) and courting misfortune (stepping on a crack in the

sidewalk), while the second line presents the antithesis of opposing genders (female

motherhubbard versus male Jack) and of the divide between poverty and misfortune (the mother

with the empty cupboard versus the Jack with wealth).

What sense can we make of all of these literary devices? Into what meaning do they

ultimately coalesce? First, the hyperboles –as seen in the metaphors, similes, and allusions—

indicate the persona’s attempt to overcompensate. As exemplified in the so-called Napoleon

complex and in Shakespeare’s line “The lady doth protest too much, methinks” from Hamlet,

exaggerated claims or protests are often signs of insecurity, and the persona’s claims in

“Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard” indicate such an anxiety, which in archetypal terms can be

described as the Shadow. What are the qualities of this Shadow? As the images and symbols

attest, the persona seems preoccupied with both travel and death, and his repeated claims that he

controls death and his destiny implies the opposite: that he fears being subject to something

beyond his control. Thus, rather than face the fear the loss of his home, the persona chooses to

never go home. Instead of facing his own mortality, he chooses to whistle past the graveyard.

Instead of chasing the devil through the corn, the speaker pursues his Shadow, his own isolating

tendencies and anxieties: “in the majority of demonic manifestations throughout the world, the

shadow archetype is clearly at work” (Stevens, 1998, p. 177). Ultimately, then, “Whistlin’ Past

the Graveyard” is about our own fears of death and the varied attempts we make at denying or

ignoring the inevitability of our own demise.

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This analysis is but one way to interpret the song. A writer could instead focus on the

criminal elements and argue that the song is a romantic ode to illegality and the archetypal

Outlaw: “The Outlaw holds the shadowy qualities of the culture—that is, the qualities the

society disdains and disregards” (Mark and Pearson, 2001, p. 124).

Another writer could center his or her attention on the use of the song’s pronouns

(especially the 2nd person “you”) and argue that this is, in fact, a love song and that the persona is

a man trying to impress a woman with his exploits. In such an analysis, one could focus on the

traditionally feminine aspects of “home” and argue that the persona is seeking his Anima or

trying to reach the Syzygy. For such a quest, the hyperbole would be essential, for “the relation

with the anima is again a test of courage, and ordeal by fire for the spiritual and moral forces of

man” (Jung, 1968, p. 29).

A third writer could argue that this song embodies the trickster archetype, for as the

Persona rides the rails, he does “the double task of marking and violating the boundaries” of

society (Hyde, 1998, p. 267).

Each of these interpretations has just as much validity as the others; the key is to argue

for a specific interpretation and then support that view through an analysis of the song’s

characteristics. This does not mean, however, that you are free to argue anything. “Whistlin’

Past the Graveyard” is not, for example, a song about war. As you mine the song’s meaning,

remember one useful bit of information: songs, like all works of art and literature, often have

multiple and conflicted meanings.

Here are some questions to help you get started. Your paper need not answer all of these

questions, so use them to help you find your focus, not as a checklist you need to follow as you

write. This essay must be a minimum of three pages and use a minimum of two sources, one of

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which must be Ariadne’s Clue. Be sure to include a correctly formatted References page. I’ve

included one to use as a model.

What images are in the lyrics? Why are these images important?

Which symbols and archetypes does the song use? Are these symbols archetypal or

context-specific? Why are these symbols significant?

What is the relationship between these symbols and archetypes?

Does the song have a specific persona? If so, what are his/her qualities?

What kind of a song is it? How does genre shape its meaning?

What is the song about? Love? Escape? Rage?

What is the song’s title? What could the title mean?

How does the song sound? What instruments does it use? At what tempo does it play?

How does the artist use his or her voice?

Does the song make any allusions? What meaning do these allusions carry?

Does the song repeat any images or phrases? How are these repetitions important to the

song?

What syntax does the songwriter employ? Are there questions? Are there examples of

parallelism? Are there examples of antithesis? Has the songwriter written in complete

sentences, or are there sentence fragments? How is this important?

How do these separate pieces relate to each other?

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References

Eliade, M. (1954). The myth of the eternal return. (W. Trask, Trans.) Princeton: Princeton

University Press. (Original work published 1949)

Hyde, L. (1998). Trickster makes this world. New York: North Point Press.

Jung, C. (1968). Archetypes of the collective unconscious. In The archetypes and the collective

unconscious (pp. 3-41). New York: Princeton University Press. (Original work published

1954)

Mark, M., & Pearson, C. (2001). The hero and the outlaw: Building extraordinary brands

through the power of archetypes. San Francisco: McGraw Hill.

Stevens, A. (1998). Ariadne’s clue: A guide to the symbols of humankind. Princeton: Princeton

University Press.

Waits, T. (1978). Whistlin’ past the graveyard. On Blue Valentine [CD]. New York: Elektra.

Woodman, M. (2010). Archetypes. [Powerpoint lecture]. Advanced Writing, California State

University, Bakersfield.