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White chalk hills are all I've known
White chalk hills will rot my bones
White chalk sticking to my shoes
White chalk playing as a child with you
White chalk stands against time
White chalk cutting down the sea at night
I walk families by the surf
On a path cut 1500 years ago
And I know
These chalk hills will rot my bones
Dorset's cliffs meet at the sea
Where I walked our unborn child in me
White chalk, poor scattered land
Scratched my palms, there's blood on my hands
White chalk hills will rot my bones
White chalk sticking to my shoes
White chalk playing as a child with you
White chalk stands against time
White chalk cutting down the sea at night
I walk families by the surf
On a path cut 1500 years ago
And I know
These chalk hills will rot my bones
Dorset's cliffs meet at the sea
Where I walked our unborn child in me
White chalk, poor scattered land
Scratched my palms, there's blood on my hands
Lyrics submitted by stentorian, edited by Home777
Track duration: 03:07
"White Chalk" as written by Polly Jean Harvey
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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White chalk hills are all Ive known.
White chalk hills will rot my bones.
White chalk sticking to my shoes.
White chalk playing as a child with you.
White chalk south against time.
White chalk cutting down the sea at Lyme.
I walk the valleys by the Cerne,
on a path cut fifteen hundred years ago,
and I know, these chalk hills will rot my bones.
Dorsets cliffs meet at the sea,
where I walked, our unborn child in me.
White chalk, gorse-scattered land,
scratched my palms, theres blood on my hands.
For me, it's about the body being both inseparable and yet estranged from history and place. The body is eternally earthbound, but in our dreams or spirit (unborn child) we can momentarily rise above it all. It is also about how the land itself eventually claims our bodies, yet we are free to wander its surface in between birth and death. When I close my eyes and listen to this song, I can see the crashing waves and the wind beaten paths along the coast. It reminds me of a Virginia Woolf novel, like The Waves or To The Lighthouse.
Lyme as in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England.
thedorsetpage.com/locations/Place/…
you have a lovely imagination and sometimes you get associations with certain words of a song. You are entitled.
White chalk formations are formed at the cliffs of southern england.
Dorset is a county in southern england.
PJ Harvey is from England, raised in Dorset.
The song is about a place she lived in. She references babies a lot as well on other songs.
It's just a personal song, not really "hidden" meanings per say
I don't think this song meant to be sad. I think it's about always being tied in your heart to a certain place. The place where the narrator grew up, the place she played as a child, the place she had kids. Those hills have been around longer than her, and they'll be there once she's gone. No matter where she goes, she'll always end up back at those hills.
it's about where you're from.
'sticking to my shoes' - always with you.
and the reference to 'rot my bones' - she'll be burried there.
Unborn child - tradition will carry on.
I don't think it's a depressing song at all, I think it's very uplifting!
I'm not sure about the last lines.. i mean I'm guessing she's scratched her palms against the hills...
I mean wasnt PJ born in Dorset??
Hmm,
"Where I walked our unborn child in me
White chalk poor scattered land
Scratched my palms
There's blood on my hands."