the correct version is "TO tussling in the waves." What that means is that the narrator, Beam, preferred the greater, unknown world, the sea, to the safety of shallow water, the waves, which represent a normal relationship.
As to this stanza:
Time and all you took
only my freedom to fuck the whole world.
What's he remembering are the reasons why he wanted to leave this girl in the first place...it's common, the way a man thinks he's closing off options to himself when in a steady relationship. In that sense, we can take "fuck" literally...the narrator says it with sarcasm because he realizes now how unfulfilling and foolish that idea is, but at the time, he imagined she was limiting him from other women, other chances...that's what she "took," but he realizes now it wasn't taken anything much at all. And:
Promising not to look
Promising light on the sidewalk girls
That should, I think be taken as one sentence..."promising not to look promising light on the sidewalk girls." Meaning, he had to promise his girl not to look promisingly on other girls they passed, which again shows that during the relationship, he was always looking outward for something better.
And then this gorgeous one:
Time and all you gave
There on your cross that I never saw
Well beyond the waves
Dunking my head when I heard you call
His constant disdain for her, his rejecting her love, looking elsewhere, considering other paths, was putting her on a cross, torturing her. And the second half of that, I think, can be both metaphorical and literal. Whenever she wanted him, reached out to him, he would duck his head in an effort to escape instead of answering her love.
the correct version is "TO tussling in the waves." What that means is that the narrator, Beam, preferred the greater, unknown world, the sea, to the safety of shallow water, the waves, which represent a normal relationship.
As to this stanza:
Time and all you took only my freedom to fuck the whole world.
What's he remembering are the reasons why he wanted to leave this girl in the first place...it's common, the way a man thinks he's closing off options to himself when in a steady relationship. In that sense, we can take "fuck" literally...the narrator says it with sarcasm because he realizes now how unfulfilling and foolish that idea is, but at the time, he imagined she was limiting him from other women, other chances...that's what she "took," but he realizes now it wasn't taken anything much at all. And:
Promising not to look Promising light on the sidewalk girls
That should, I think be taken as one sentence..."promising not to look promising light on the sidewalk girls." Meaning, he had to promise his girl not to look promisingly on other girls they passed, which again shows that during the relationship, he was always looking outward for something better.
And then this gorgeous one:
Time and all you gave There on your cross that I never saw Well beyond the waves Dunking my head when I heard you call
His constant disdain for her, his rejecting her love, looking elsewhere, considering other paths, was putting her on a cross, torturing her. And the second half of that, I think, can be both metaphorical and literal. Whenever she wanted him, reached out to him, he would duck his head in an effort to escape instead of answering her love.
I think he sings "seek" during the last chorus. He is more reflective...
I think he sings "seek" during the last chorus. He is more reflective...
"Now I seek love... "
"Now I seek love... "