Rake song by the Decemberists

These are five separate illustrations I did to illustrate the Rake Song by the Decemberist.

The song tells the story of a man that gets married only to have his wife start "spilling out babies". When his wife dies with the fourth child during birth, he is stuck with the three other "little pests". To free himself from this burden he murders all the remaining children. He kills the littlest girl by feeding her foxglove, the next he drowns in the bath, and the eldest son is beaten to death and his body burned.

In a later song on the album (Hazards of Love) the children starting hauntingly singing to their father.

Here are the lyrics:

I had entered into a marriage

In the summer of my twenty-first year

And the bells rang for our wedding

Only now do I remember it clear

Alright, alright, alright

No more a rake and no more a bachelor

I was wedded and it whetted my thirst

Until her womb start spilling out babies

Only then did I reckon my curse

Alright, alright, alright

Alright, alright, alright

First came Isaiah with his crinkled little fingers

Then came Charlotte and that wretched girl Dawn

Ugly Methanley died on delivery

Mercifully taking her mother along

Alright, alright, alright

What can one do when one is widower

Shamefully saddled with three little pests

All that I wanted was the freedom of a new life

So my burden I began to divest

Alright, alright, alright

Alright, alright, alright

Charlotte I buried after feeding her foxglove

Dawn was easy, she was drowned in the bath

Isaiah fought but was easily bested

Burned his body for incurring my wrath

Alright, alright, alright

And that's how I came your awful narrator

To be living so easy and free

Expect you think that I should be haunted

But it never really bothers me

Alright, alright, alright

Alright, alright, alright

Here is the actual song: