Tiger Mountain Peasant Song - Fleet Foxes

Wanderers this morning came by
Where did they go
Graceful in the morning light
To banner fair
To follow you softly
In the cold mountain air

The first line of the song is very interesting. It uses the words "wanderers" meaning that the people that are walking around are kind of lost. They are not exactly sure what they are looking for. However, as the song goes on it is evident that they do not stay around long and that they mean well. They are not some sort of evil demon.

Through the forest
Down to your grave
Where the birds wait
And the tall grasses wave
They do not
know you anymore
This verse is the first where the narrator talks of their own experience. It also has to deal with the lostness that death causes. On the way to visiting a grave it has been a long time so the surroundings are not as familiar as they once were. The death is not recent.

Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true
The narrator, like the wanderers, is a little lost right now. He/she is not sure how death works. he is willing to ask anyone that will give him a straight answer, even the "shadows". This desperateness for knowing shows how the narrator was very shaken by the death of this important person in his life.

In the town one morning I went
Staggering through premonitions of my death
I don't see anybody that dear to me
The author of this song is getting so obsessed with finding this new information that he/she is starting to think of their own death. The obsession for the knowledge of death is something that consumes people. The death that is seen is also a lonely one since he/she does not see anyone dear to them.

Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true

This verse then repeats showing the emphasis on the obsession the narrator has acquired for knowledge of death.

Jesse
I don't know what I have done
I'm turning myself to a demon
I don't know what I have done
I'm turning myself to a demon
The last verse is one of the most important. It mentions the name "Jesse" that could be a boy or girl and seems to be the dead person that the narrator has been visiting all along. The narrator also expresses that his obsession with what has happened to Jesse and his own acception of it has turned him into something evil. A "demon" so to speak. However, he does not know how to escape and is very concerned.