The Decemberists – June Hymn

From The King Is Dead.

Colin Meloy’s project here is to transfer the joyful, full-of-life aromas and images of June on Springville Hill onto the love the speaker has for his lover.  But, of course, it’s not known whether the temperate June setting of this song is influencing the speaker’s love, or whether the love he feels is influencing his experience with his surroundings.  Is it his head, cloudy with emotions, making the setting more vibrant, more alive?  Or has this gorgeous place made him fall in love?  The recursive loop between setting and feeling is magnifying, so much so that I feel the same worry of the speaker at the end of the song — will we long for these past places we loved so much in a future when we can’t return to them?  And is the difficulty returning to the place only, or a combination of place and experience?