It's a beautiful mysterious song, although it offers glimpses it's really hard to see what's going on in detail, but the emotional effect is very strong. It's a song about remembering dear things have have been lost to us.
Here's my best shot at the lyrics...
Along the coast of the British Isles there are quite a few examples of towns that have been lost to the sea. In the first two verses Kate describes a particular place that has been inundated: once it was a thriving fishing town with hundreds of inhabitants and forests of masts in the harbour. During the war many planes crashed into the sea around the town, I guess these were bomber pilots trying to get back home and therefore this town was probably on the east/south coast, somewhere between Yorkshire and Sussex.
Nowadays it lies underwater, no more than a hazard for fishing boats who snag their nets on the old buildings. With the passage of time the nets cover more and more of the old town (Kate uses the metaphor of the 'spider of time' spinning its web). She imagines all the people in pleasure boats sailing over the old town, oblivious to what lies just under the water and wonders whether there remains any echo of the area's past: "Put your hand over the side of the boat. What do you feel?"
In the third verse she switches to the tangible and personal: her mother's milk jug which, when she holds it, reminds her of her mother.
The fourth verse ties together the lost town and the lost mother. It seems that the town was once her mother's home, although she might just be linking the memories of the lost town and the lost mother: "In a house draped in net, In a room filled with coral" might also apply to many homes of the time which were draped in net (curtains) and filled with coral (ornaments).
The third and fourth verses describe a particular memory: her mother singing a baby song to the jug (which I guess she's had since her own childhood) and laughing at herself. As the children come in she spies a spider in the jug and, in her shock, drops it, sending it crashing to the floor.
It's a beautiful mysterious song, although it offers glimpses it's really hard to see what's going on in detail, but the emotional effect is very strong. It's a song about remembering dear things have have been lost to us.
Here's my best shot at the lyrics...
Along the coast of the British Isles there are quite a few examples of towns that have been lost to the sea. In the first two verses Kate describes a particular place that has been inundated: once it was a thriving fishing town with hundreds of inhabitants and forests of masts in the harbour. During the war many planes crashed into the sea around the town, I guess these were bomber pilots trying to get back home and therefore this town was probably on the east/south coast, somewhere between Yorkshire and Sussex.
Nowadays it lies underwater, no more than a hazard for fishing boats who snag their nets on the old buildings. With the passage of time the nets cover more and more of the old town (Kate uses the metaphor of the 'spider of time' spinning its web). She imagines all the people in pleasure boats sailing over the old town, oblivious to what lies just under the water and wonders whether there remains any echo of the area's past: "Put your hand over the side of the boat. What do you feel?"
In the third verse she switches to the tangible and personal: her mother's milk jug which, when she holds it, reminds her of her mother.
The fourth verse ties together the lost town and the lost mother. It seems that the town was once her mother's home, although she might just be linking the memories of the lost town and the lost mother: "In a house draped in net, In a room filled with coral" might also apply to many homes of the time which were draped in net (curtains) and filled with coral (ornaments).
The third and fourth verses describe a particular memory: her mother singing a baby song to the jug (which I guess she's had since her own childhood) and laughing at herself. As the children come in she spies a spider in the jug and, in her shock, drops it, sending it crashing to the floor.