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 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 ironically 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
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=into subconscious dream state… (leading into dream recall ‘Under Ice’).
‘And dream of sheep./Ooh, their breath is warm/And they smell like sleep…’
- see THE SHEEP UNDER THE SNOW (William Kennish, W.H. Gill, etc.)
- Shepherds searching for sheep lost in snow use probing-poles; "round breathing-holes" are formed by the heat of the sheep’s breath in the snow, which afford them partial ventilation and also attract the scent of the dog/rescuer/The Good Shepherd.
A sad and beautiful song, about people struggling against the odds.
On the Fastnet Race disaster of August 1979:
- Winds were reported at Force 6, with gusts of Force 7. Forecasters were predicting winds of Force 8.
- In the event, competitors were caught in Force 11 hurricane strength gusts midway between Land's End and Fastnet.
- The rescue effort included: Royal Navy ships, RAF Nimrod jets, helicopters, lifeboats, a Dutch warship, tugs, trawlers and tankers.
- Many of the smaller yachts taking part in the competition were not equipped with a radio and were therefore not able to report their positions.
- By the time the winds subsided, 15 people were dead, 24 crews had abandoned their yachts and five craft had sunk. 136 sailors were rescued.
Kate: [On “And Dream of Sheep” - the line that says 'Come here with me now.'] “When I was little, and I'd had a bad dream… [my mother would] say something like "Come here with me now." It's my mother saying this line in the track…” (http://gaffa.org/garden/kate23.html).
-- The Ninth Wave opens with the Girl in the Water: terrified, exhausted, scared; wanting/fighting sleep; trying to still herself with the patience of sheep lost in snow... By the end of “And Dream of Sheep,” she is unconscious… sinking into that intermediate state between life-death and rebirth...
-- What follows is a series of 5 dreams/nightmares, rising from her ‘unconscious’ state. (Maybe she becomes semi-conscious at some point; maybe she does not.)
-- During the final Chorus of “Hello, Earth” she drowns(?). Note the philosophic, mournful ending of the song.
-- The whispering/comforting “Come here with me now” (at the beginning/Alpha) has become the whispering/comforting “Go to sleep little earth” (at the end/Omega).
-- The ocean = dark, deep, unconscious, id, life, grave, womb… etc, etc.
<i>But the Wheel of Life is a continuous wonder, thus the rebirthing “The Morning Fog.” … </i>