The Island Come & See

In this song by The Decembrists, i paid particular attention to the very last stanza. These last four line made me remember some of my classics classes which i had taken freashman year. The main focus was on the last two lines. The fact of the dimes being placed upon the eyes of the dead was a traditioin pasted down through history. The idea behind the money on the eyes of the dead is to pay the fare into the land of the dead. The money would go to the boat man to carry them across the river Greeks took with them on there last journey coins with which to reward Charon for the safe conduct of his soul, over the dark waters of the Styx. Yet, this is not totally true because the greeks and romans placed the money in the mouths of the dead . It was later in history when the coins began being placed on the eyes. There are many different reasons for this, one is to hold down the eyelids so we would not be able to see death in there eyes or the fact could be they might not have had eyes to look into. The first two lines of this stanza are leading to believe that the captain is still alive and the rest are dead, because someone has to place the coins on their eyes and his cries would not be heard if he was dead. Therefore his cries are for the losses of his crew.