Balmoral Song

Here the old lady is roaming
Her hair as white as the dove,
While her vision deceives through the gloaming 
Combing the grounds of her love

Oh, what had she found for the rest of her days,
And what for the rest of her nights?
Oh, what did she find
Oh, what did she find
But the nights were all black and blind
Oh her nights were so black and blind
While the face of her days were lined
With the shade of his grace from above.

There she walks through her statues and graves
Wandering by day into night
Where in a dream her true love waves
Beyond a river of light

Oh, what had she found for the rest of her days,
And what for the rest of her nights?
Oh, what did she find
Oh, what did she find
But the nights were all streamed with light
Oh her nights were all dreamed with light
While the face of her days were bright
In the sight of her God of the night.

Here (at Balmoral) and there (at Balmoral) intimates two contrary states of mind whereof Fox’s creation of the deep ambiguities in the conflictions and afflictions of its language, the words versus the syntax, their colours versus their conditions, their picturings versus their possibilities, all cast Victoria’s mind as into two states: the real and the realisable.   In the real is nothing more, here she cannot realise, perhaps refuses to realise final separation between her and her love, whereas there, ultimately, she cannot but place herself with her God of the night.  Perhaps, for her "The Night is Long, that never finds the Day", [Macbeth, end Act IV]. The song leaves her inextricably involved in the ambiguity of the shade that shines in her eyes.  Fox has found a lovely lament for the singing of this song (in his own mind at least).

 Link to "The Knock"

Link to No 3 Knocks Cottages

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