The part:
"Flaming eyes I must confront before I am stated free
Defining innocence is hell, after all that has past..."
I think fairly clearly established that he was found innocent and hence I can't interpret him simply falling asleep or passing out. Equally as pointed out:
"I never had a chance to stop what hit me...
What broke my bones and mauled me..."
...is quite clear that we're dealing with some sort of an "accident". Until I chanced on this site I was perplexed about what really happened to him, but now that I read supernancy's explanation it does all makes sense.
The lighthouse keeper's reaction when he sees the family name tells he hadn't seen the man before, which actually explains why the stanza about his accident is so vague - he didn't see who hit him. There is a kind of reprise in "Although I never saw the face" and it would certainly justify "Love can be like poetry of demons, or maybe God loves complex irony?" This would ALSO explain his lovers sudden flight from the town that very night.
The alternative would be that the story just doesn't tell what caused it ("what hit me, what broke my bones and mauled me") which seems unlikely in this story. Also the "Forever... for that one night" is quite clear as mud that it was one-night stand. The only story that seems to make sense (to me, at least) is that the husband caught them fooling around, gave him a good trashing and she boarded the ship to escape his anger. (Obiviously neither of them knowing the lighthouse was now keeperless).
The part: "Flaming eyes I must confront before I am stated free Defining innocence is hell, after all that has past..." I think fairly clearly established that he was found innocent and hence I can't interpret him simply falling asleep or passing out. Equally as pointed out: "I never had a chance to stop what hit me... What broke my bones and mauled me..." ...is quite clear that we're dealing with some sort of an "accident". Until I chanced on this site I was perplexed about what really happened to him, but now that I read supernancy's explanation it does all makes sense.
The lighthouse keeper's reaction when he sees the family name tells he hadn't seen the man before, which actually explains why the stanza about his accident is so vague - he didn't see who hit him. There is a kind of reprise in "Although I never saw the face" and it would certainly justify "Love can be like poetry of demons, or maybe God loves complex irony?" This would ALSO explain his lovers sudden flight from the town that very night.
The alternative would be that the story just doesn't tell what caused it ("what hit me, what broke my bones and mauled me") which seems unlikely in this story. Also the "Forever... for that one night" is quite clear as mud that it was one-night stand. The only story that seems to make sense (to me, at least) is that the husband caught them fooling around, gave him a good trashing and she boarded the ship to escape his anger. (Obiviously neither of them knowing the lighthouse was now keeperless).