The emotional weight of the song rests on its third verse. The narrator suddenly "wakes and looks around" at "four gray walls" [15]. The idyllic homecoming was merely a dream [12].
: His parents are there to meet him, along with "Mary," his childhood sweetheart with "hair of gold and lips like cherries" [15, 6]. green_green_grass_of_home
In reality, the man is a prisoner on death row. The "green, green grass" he will soon touch is not the lawn of his childhood home, but the site of his burial [12, 17]. The family and friends who "come to see me" in the final verse are actually visiting his grave "beneath the green, green grass of home" [15, 7]. Origins and Inspiration The emotional weight of the song rests on its third verse