Re: Under The Ivy

[Richard Bensam <rabensam@earthlink.net>]

Leigh Perkins wrote:

>     the line "the green on the grey" is a possible indicator of a
>     graveyard, this may not be as far fetched as it seems - East Wickham
>     farm looks across to Plumstead Church and the common.  I wonder if
>     this was somewhere to hide from everyone!! - there's alot of
>     gravestones that are covered with ivy there - what think you??
>
>     Leigh

For years I heard this line as "the green on the grave" -- rather than "on
the gray" -- and this conjured up *exactly* the image you describe.  And it
is SUCH an archetypal Kate image, to go hiding in an ivy-strewn graveyard,
that I still suspect this is what she had in mind.  She does seem to be
singing "on the grey" but we can't rule out the possibility that it was
originally written as "grave" and she changed it later.  To avoid an
unnecessarily morbid connotation?  To keep from revealing too personal an
image?  Whichever, it obviously didn't work well enough.  :-)


RAB

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