"On the way to your brother's house in the valley, dear,"
Song's protagonist & a woman (his wife or lover we assume b/c of later lines about motherhood) walk to her brother's house. They find a cradle in the river, the child inside is dead (larger context of the song suggests the child is dead).
The woman takes the child home, the song's protagonist looks on as she washes him.
"you will remember when you rehearse the actions of
An innocent and anxious mother full of anxious love"
Possible that the woman has lost a baby in the past (i.e. miscarriage or ), there are quite a few allusions to loss and the past throughout the song, and the woman is not merely carrying out the action of bathing the child, she's 'rehearsing', another indication the child is dead, and her act of lovingly bathing the child alludes to i) that the child was once alive, ii) that the woman is performing the role of mother, acting out the part, there's a sense of a double reality, that the child is dead yet her actions are as if it were alive, and the double reality of her having once cared for a child in the past. She 'remembers' these actions from the past, and an innocence from the past (her first child--also the innocence of Oliver James, the baby that has died)
That the baby, Oliver James, was washed in the rain, and found in a cradle in the river, seems to suggest he didn't fall into the river, he was sent floating down the river. The contrast between neglect that led to the death of the child, left to the elements, is symbolized by the rain washing him, VS the maternal care of this woman, who washes him by hand, as love, as a mother.
"Walk with me down Ruby beach and through the valley floor
Love for the one you know more"
I'm confused by this line 'love for the one you know more', it sounds almost like the writer wanted the pun / double meaning in the limited syllables of: 'love for the one you know NO more", i.e., love for someone who has died.
"Back we go to your brother's house emptier my dear
The sound of ancient voices ringing soft upon your ear"
Again, sense of the past, loss, death, and 'ancient voices' suggest people who have died, perhaps children who have died. The subject of the song is unusual in talking about discovering a dead baby, but the larger idea of an infant's death and a mother's mourning, are captured in these lines, that evokes a sense of history, human history stretching back and the many, many infants that have died while still babies. Very tragic song, but it's a human reality that's always been with us.
"Oliver James washed in the rain no longer
Oliver James washed in the rain no longer"
Essentially the struggle to deal with the death of infants, who symbolise life & care of baby, a role which has long defined womanhood. So a song from a man's perspective about a woman with a kind of 'surplus' of mother's love, she cares lovingly for a dead child who died from neglect.
"On the way to your brother's house in the valley, dear,"
Song's protagonist & a woman (his wife or lover we assume b/c of later lines about motherhood) walk to her brother's house. They find a cradle in the river, the child inside is dead (larger context of the song suggests the child is dead).
The woman takes the child home, the song's protagonist looks on as she washes him.
"you will remember when you rehearse the actions of An innocent and anxious mother full of anxious love"
Possible that the woman has lost a baby in the past (i.e. miscarriage or ), there are quite a few allusions to loss and the past throughout the song, and the woman is not merely carrying out the action of bathing the child, she's 'rehearsing', another indication the child is dead, and her act of lovingly bathing the child alludes to i) that the child was once alive, ii) that the woman is performing the role of mother, acting out the part, there's a sense of a double reality, that the child is dead yet her actions are as if it were alive, and the double reality of her having once cared for a child in the past. She 'remembers' these actions from the past, and an innocence from the past (her first child--also the innocence of Oliver James, the baby that has died)
That the baby, Oliver James, was washed in the rain, and found in a cradle in the river, seems to suggest he didn't fall into the river, he was sent floating down the river. The contrast between neglect that led to the death of the child, left to the elements, is symbolized by the rain washing him, VS the maternal care of this woman, who washes him by hand, as love, as a mother.
"Walk with me down Ruby beach and through the valley floor Love for the one you know more"
I'm confused by this line 'love for the one you know more', it sounds almost like the writer wanted the pun / double meaning in the limited syllables of: 'love for the one you know NO more", i.e., love for someone who has died.
"Back we go to your brother's house emptier my dear The sound of ancient voices ringing soft upon your ear"
Again, sense of the past, loss, death, and 'ancient voices' suggest people who have died, perhaps children who have died. The subject of the song is unusual in talking about discovering a dead baby, but the larger idea of an infant's death and a mother's mourning, are captured in these lines, that evokes a sense of history, human history stretching back and the many, many infants that have died while still babies. Very tragic song, but it's a human reality that's always been with us.
"Oliver James washed in the rain no longer Oliver James washed in the rain no longer"
Essentially the struggle to deal with the death of infants, who symbolise life & care of baby, a role which has long defined womanhood. So a song from a man's perspective about a woman with a kind of 'surplus' of mother's love, she cares lovingly for a dead child who died from neglect.