The danger of using lyrical images that are too personal is that one runs the risk of being too obscure to the understood. The amazing trick, when it happens, occurs when the lyrics are obscure yet touch something within that passes along an emotion even without an explicit understanding. This latter is how this song strikes me.
As one of the First Peoples (yes, I really am Cheyenne), I could toss in political comments about Christopher Columbus. In these lyrics, however, I feel that it's more about the sense of dreaming of finding that fabled New Land, a place where all that is known (and, perhaps, causes pain) can be left behind, giving one a new start, new hope. The "traveling heart" is the one that is too restless, too injured, to stay with the known pain of its surroundings -- the "blue light" (literal or figurative) "away from the fireside" (without warmth, without the camaraderie of others gathered there). The world is crowded, twisted, haunted, crazy -- filled with old ghosts that can't be exorcised... so we dream of the journey to take us to a new world, dreaming of our plans (maps and beautiful charts) that may not ever happen.
The verses are obscure yet touch something deep in me.The "whale" could be a reference to Moby Dick (obsession with revenge), or it could be simply a huge emotional turmoil, or even a person whose personality is has crowded and overwhelmed, one whom you're better off without. The combination of images results in the same advice: Don't go there, don't let your boat (self) become lost. Find your way with a good partner who will steer your (both of you) boat safely.
A cormorant is a seaside-dwelling bird that feeds on fish and eels. They dive underwater, propelling themselves with wings and webbed feet, to depths as far as 45 meters. Perhaps an allusion to another new world, one where a creature made for the air pushes far into the water for sustenance? The mermaid -- mythical, magical female sought by sailors over the centuries -- can only be found in the depths where air-breathers cannot survive, unless (as Shakespeare put it) he risk and hazard all he hath.
I have known the aching hunger, this desperate need for the love of a true other. That is what the song touches in me, with few changes needed in its images to reflect images of my own life. It is a song that touches my traveling, ever-seeking heart, and I gaze at my own maps and charts through a haze of cleansing tears.
@CheyenneWolf I think you have done a wonderfully at interpreting this song. Yours is a very thoughtful and compelling read. I hope that, in the intervening years since you posted this, your maps and charts have been true and that your ever-seeking heart has found another as willing and as worthy.
@CheyenneWolf I think you have done a wonderfully at interpreting this song. Yours is a very thoughtful and compelling read. I hope that, in the intervening years since you posted this, your maps and charts have been true and that your ever-seeking heart has found another as willing and as worthy.
The danger of using lyrical images that are too personal is that one runs the risk of being too obscure to the understood. The amazing trick, when it happens, occurs when the lyrics are obscure yet touch something within that passes along an emotion even without an explicit understanding. This latter is how this song strikes me.
As one of the First Peoples (yes, I really am Cheyenne), I could toss in political comments about Christopher Columbus. In these lyrics, however, I feel that it's more about the sense of dreaming of finding that fabled New Land, a place where all that is known (and, perhaps, causes pain) can be left behind, giving one a new start, new hope. The "traveling heart" is the one that is too restless, too injured, to stay with the known pain of its surroundings -- the "blue light" (literal or figurative) "away from the fireside" (without warmth, without the camaraderie of others gathered there). The world is crowded, twisted, haunted, crazy -- filled with old ghosts that can't be exorcised... so we dream of the journey to take us to a new world, dreaming of our plans (maps and beautiful charts) that may not ever happen.
The verses are obscure yet touch something deep in me.The "whale" could be a reference to Moby Dick (obsession with revenge), or it could be simply a huge emotional turmoil, or even a person whose personality is has crowded and overwhelmed, one whom you're better off without. The combination of images results in the same advice: Don't go there, don't let your boat (self) become lost. Find your way with a good partner who will steer your (both of you) boat safely.
A cormorant is a seaside-dwelling bird that feeds on fish and eels. They dive underwater, propelling themselves with wings and webbed feet, to depths as far as 45 meters. Perhaps an allusion to another new world, one where a creature made for the air pushes far into the water for sustenance? The mermaid -- mythical, magical female sought by sailors over the centuries -- can only be found in the depths where air-breathers cannot survive, unless (as Shakespeare put it) he risk and hazard all he hath.
I have known the aching hunger, this desperate need for the love of a true other. That is what the song touches in me, with few changes needed in its images to reflect images of my own life. It is a song that touches my traveling, ever-seeking heart, and I gaze at my own maps and charts through a haze of cleansing tears.
@CheyenneWolf I think you have done a wonderfully at interpreting this song. Yours is a very thoughtful and compelling read. I hope that, in the intervening years since you posted this, your maps and charts have been true and that your ever-seeking heart has found another as willing and as worthy.
@CheyenneWolf I think you have done a wonderfully at interpreting this song. Yours is a very thoughtful and compelling read. I hope that, in the intervening years since you posted this, your maps and charts have been true and that your ever-seeking heart has found another as willing and as worthy.