I thought Dhamp had some good points. Here's some other stuff I noticed:
In addition to references to natural disasters, there are references to war and anarchy: "the war of the end times", the "Andalusian tribes", etc. The whole "Hetty Green" bit seems to be about how you can only trust yourself in these times and look out for your own interests. The verse that begins with "Quiet now" suggests that the disaster(s) may have resulted in some kind of post-apocalyptic future with a handful of survivors. It's suggested that there might be some kind of drought ("Will we gather to conjure the rain down?") and/or nuclear fallout ("Will we now / Build a civilization below ground?"), or at least that the surface of the Earth has been made inhospitable in some way. Not sure what "the arms of the angels" refers to - it could be that the last thing left to hold onto is religion, or perhaps just human kindness.
I thought Dhamp had some good points. Here's some other stuff I noticed:
In addition to references to natural disasters, there are references to war and anarchy: "the war of the end times", the "Andalusian tribes", etc. The whole "Hetty Green" bit seems to be about how you can only trust yourself in these times and look out for your own interests. The verse that begins with "Quiet now" suggests that the disaster(s) may have resulted in some kind of post-apocalyptic future with a handful of survivors. It's suggested that there might be some kind of drought ("Will we gather to conjure the rain down?") and/or nuclear fallout ("Will we now / Build a civilization below ground?"), or at least that the surface of the Earth has been made inhospitable in some way. Not sure what "the arms of the angels" refers to - it could be that the last thing left to hold onto is religion, or perhaps just human kindness.