A fragile song, heavy and exhausted.
‘If they find me racing white horses,
They'll not take me for a buoy.’
The girl has already been in the water for hours, text-book ‘racing white horses’, desperately trying to attract attention so not be mistaken for a buoy. She has confused sea gulls with search parties. She is now exhausted…
Too tired to keep struggling, she places all her faith and hope in the little torchlight on her life-jacket… She prays, Little light will guide them to me…
Without energy, she can do no more than fix the torch to keep her face lit up (with hope)…
She tries to enliven, to keep racing… but is fighting sleep, wanting to shut down thinking, imagination and struggle… Don’t worry, I’ll wake up if I hear boats, engines, rescuers…
Against losing the struggle, she wishes she had her radio… The ‘friendly voices Talking 'bout stupid things’ would now be so appreciated… keeping her awake and distracted…
She might be using ‘stupid’ affectionately, or she might be referring to the weather reports. “Weather services tracked the formation of these storms, but failed to appreciate their rapid development in time to warn either fleet of the impending gale winds…”
(Hinz, The Fastnet Race disaster of August 1979; and see http://gaffa.org/dreaming/tnw_ff10.html)
But she is slipping fast… Let me be weak, Let me sleep And dream of sheep…
little light=both the life-jacket torch and the hope/faith/prayer she feels.
they say they take me home=home=death.
poppies=opium=heroin=morphine=Morpheus (the god of dreams in Greek mythology; Morpheus sleeps surrounded by poppy flowers).
deeper and deeper=deeper=into subconscious dream state… (leading into dream recall ‘Under Ice’).
A sad and beautiful song, about people struggling against the odds.
A fragile song, heavy and exhausted. ‘If they find me racing white horses, They'll not take me for a buoy.’
The girl has already been in the water for hours, text-book ‘racing white horses’, desperately trying to attract attention so not be mistaken for a buoy. She has confused sea gulls with search parties. She is now exhausted…
Too tired to keep struggling, she places all her faith and hope in the little torchlight on her life-jacket… She prays, Little light will guide them to me… Without energy, she can do no more than fix the torch to keep her face lit up (with hope)… She tries to enliven, to keep racing… but is fighting sleep, wanting to shut down thinking, imagination and struggle… Don’t worry, I’ll wake up if I hear boats, engines, rescuers…
Against losing the struggle, she wishes she had her radio… The ‘friendly voices Talking 'bout stupid things’ would now be so appreciated… keeping her awake and distracted…
She might be using ‘stupid’ affectionately, or she might be referring to the weather reports. “Weather services tracked the formation of these storms, but failed to appreciate their rapid development in time to warn either fleet of the impending gale winds…” (Hinz, The Fastnet Race disaster of August 1979; and see http://gaffa.org/dreaming/tnw_ff10.html)
But she is slipping fast… Let me be weak, Let me sleep And dream of sheep…
little light=both the life-jacket torch and the hope/faith/prayer she feels. they say they take me home=home=death. poppies=opium=heroin=morphine=Morpheus (the god of dreams in Greek mythology; Morpheus sleeps surrounded by poppy flowers). deeper and deeper=deeper=into subconscious dream state… (leading into dream recall ‘Under Ice’).
A sad and beautiful song, about people struggling against the odds.