Re: and dream of sheep

[asteg@k12.ucs.umass.edu (Albert Steg (Winsor School))]

In a previous article, kenh@bsbbs.columbus.oh.us (Ken Hollern) says:

>I have always wondered what the little light was referring to.  I think 
>the light before someone dies is more than obvious, which leads me to 
>believe that it's not that light.  Kate tends to be a little bit more 
>obscure.  I had thought maybe it was the light from a farrie, you know 
>like tinkerbell, taking kate into a different dimension.  I also 
>considered it to be Dr. Bush, using a pen light, looking into Kate's eyes 
>to see if she is conscious.  I've also considered to be the moon, a 
>flare, a lighthouse.  
>
>I've been thinking about this for the past five years (when I purchased 
>my first Kate albumb)  and am completely dumbfounded. Just a couple of 
>thoughts.  

     Last week in a posting about 'The Ninth Wave' I offered a summary of 
a the "stuck in the water" reading of the suite of songs as Kate had 
explained it in various interviews.  Following the situation of a person
somehow stranded in the ocean overnight, waiting for the dawn, the "little
light" is the battery-operated pen-light attached to life-jackets to help
rescuers find the survivors.  (On the back cover photograph Kate is 
wearing that sort of life-jacket.)  So the line "Little light guide them
to me" is very literal!  "White horses" are the foam caps on moving waves,
so she wants to keep moving in the water so that a plane might notice her.
I think the image of the tiny light illuminating her face in the water is
one of the loveliest on the record.
	Of course, listeners may recognize whatever sorts of symbolic ideas
appeal to them in the songs --but as with poetry in general, we lose a lot
if we don't grasp the literal level of meaning first.  Most good poems do
involve a speaker in a particular settting and circumstance,which we need to
see in order to get into "deeper" meanings.  Getting help with the
"situations" in Kate's songs is, for me, one of the best reasons for 
having newsgroups like this.
	One of the marvelous things abou "The Ninth Wave" is that although
there are plenty of details that point to the person's predicament,
no-one that I know was able to make out this situation (person stuck in the
water) without some help, usually after getting to know the side really
well.  Listening to it with the new picture in mind is almost like getting
a new Kate Bush record!

							Albert
-- 
"When it was proclaimed that the Library contained all books,the
first impression was one of extravagant happiness. All men felt
themselves to be the masters of an intact and secret treasure.
                       -Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel"