Carlisle

"Carlisle" is hard to interpret: the various references don\'t entirely add up to a coherent whole, although most of the song does seem to tell a story of a kind. Perhaps the best clue is in the liner notes for "Carlisle" on the album "Paradise Razed", which say that "A sudden clatter of mail vans without wakes me from dreams of riot and plunder to the cold waiting room and the morning train to Leeds". This suggests that the whole song might be simply a dream that Joseph Porter had while sleeping in a railway station, and so, like a dream, not all the images are necessarily connected.\n\n"Carlisle": a city in North-West England, slightly south of the border with Scotland.\n\n"Karpov": Anatoly Karpov, the Russian chess grandmaster. The first verse is full of chess metaphors, with several chess pieces -- pawn, castle, king -- mentioned. The action on the chessboard is described as if it were an actual battle.\n\n"the King\'s red menacing ride": in some chess sets, the darker pieces may be colored red rather than black. The "king\'s red menacing ride" may be an example of a figure of speech known as a \'transferred epithet\' in which an adjective is moved from one noun to another. In this case, \'red\' is transferred from \'king\' to \'ride\', so the "red king\'s ride" becomes the "king\'s red ride". The image of a "red king" may be intended to evoke the Red Queen from Lewis Carroll\'s "Through the Looking Glass": a ruler in an irrational dreamworld. As a chess grandmaster representing the Soviet Union, Karpov himself could also be described as a "red king", with \'red\' in the sense of \'Communist\'.\n\n"over the Castle": a castle (or rook) is a piece in chess, in keeping with the theme of this verse, but this is probably also a reference to Carlisle Castle, an 11th-century castle in Carlisle. \n\n"the Citadel\'s scar": The Citadel is a medieval fortress and former prison in Carlisle.\n\n"the border town": Carlisle\n\n"Sankt-Marie": \'sankt\' is a transcription of the Russian word for \'saint\' (i.e. the city of Saint Petersburg is Sankt-Peterburg in Russian). \'Sankt-Marie\' is clearly a protective figure, just possibly the Virgin Mary or another Christian saint named Mary or Marie.\n\n"I fell in with a good man ...": the verse that follows uses multiple images related to the work of a mason, suggesting that the \'good man\' may be an actual mason or a Freemason, or both.\n\n"to lay the breast works": "breastworks" are temporary fortifications, walls of earth or stone built to provide protection for soldiers\n\n"mortar": a paste used in building to bind stone or brick into place\n\n"his manor for my mansion house and altar": Mansion House is the residence of the Lord Mayor of London (and also the name of a nearby station on the London Underground). The implication seems to be that the \'good man\' has not merely taken the narrator under his protection, but has provided him with a home and even a path to respectability.\n\n"I pledged my parole": \'parole\', from the French word for \'word\', in the sense of "giving your word". A prisoner who "pledged his parole" might, depending on the circumstances, promise not to commit further crimes, or to flee, or to take up arms against his captor etc.\n\n"smarting but smiling": to smart is to feel pain; the suggestion is that the narrator resents his situation, but hides his resentment by smiling.\n\n"his dole": in British English, unemployment benefits are called "the dole". The word has the same roots as the verb "to dole out". \'dole\' in this sense is something given to someone in need, such as money, food or lodging. "his dole" is whatever the \'good man\' chooses to give the narrator (who is apparently humiliated by being dependent on his benefactor)\n\n"the silvers and the sables": \'sable\' is black, so this is a poetic image for moonlight and shadows.\n\n"gone to the moss now": \'moss\' is an archaic term for a peat bog and, by extension, moorland or any wild land. To "go to the moss" is to flee into the wilderness.\n\n"saddle bag": a bag fitted to the saddle of a horse to carry supplies\n\n"turned into the wind and slipped my cable": the metaphor here is of a sailing ship setting sail. To \'slip the cable\' is to leave in a hurry; a ship that did not have time to raise its anchor would simply release the cable or chain holding the anchor to the ship, letting it run overboard.\n\n"By Judas Iscariot": the narrator\'s betrayal of his host and benefactor is implicitly compared to the betrayal of Jesus by the disciple Judas Iscariot.\n\n"his hares and his hounds": \'hare and hounds\' is either a board game, in which three \'hounds\' try to trap a hare, or a physical game in which one person leaves a trail that others try to follow; the \'good man\' is not literally using hares to chase after the narrator, but his pursuit is being likened to one or other (or both) of the games known as "hare and hounds".\n\n"Sandman smashes the lantern": the sandman is a mythical figure in European folklore who brings sleep and inspires dreams\n\n"Narcissus": a character from Greek mythology, who fell in love with his own reflection, symbolizing total self-absorption. In this case, the \'Narcissus\' figure who is unmoved by the distress of a female character is presumably the narrator, who has been similarly self-focused and indifferent to the feelings of others throughout the song.