Week 2 - Down In The Valley

"Down in the Valley" follows a flowy 3/4 pattern, and is arranged about two major chords, F and C.  The love ballad's rhythmic, tantric melody fills my ears with the same sense of blowing wind described in the lyrics.  The line "hang your head over" for some reason instills in me a sorrowful image of loneliness and even death. I think the imagery stems from the idea of both the gallows (to which I do not believe the lines refers) and also the sense of disappointment or sadness involved in the heart of a woman with a low-hanging head.  

The allusions to nature ("Roses love sunshine, violets love dew") and religious imagery ("Angels in Heaven") create a strong poetic element and further strengthen the beauteous nature of love. this is continued throughout the song. I am particularly fascinated by the lines "If you don't love me, love whom you please/Throw your arms round me, give my heart ease".  At first listen, it seemed to me a contradiction of logic - to let free the heart of a loved one, and then asking her to embrace to again embrace the singer.  This is perhaps an allusion to the conflicted nature of love, and suggests that a warm embrace, even while the romance has gone elsewhere, is still a powerful remedy for the stresses of love. 

Both the stanza about Birmingham jail and regarding the castle to me represent the same metaphorical or literal structure.  While perhaps a literal reference to being imprisoned, I think the jail is also a representation of a trapped heart, one forever in love with a woman.  The castle is this same environment, but in a world where the woman herself, the object of his love, "builds" him a castle to rest his heart in. Similar to the idea of the warm embrace, it is perhaps a symbol of easing the pain of love, so that she herself builds this castle, and lets herself still have some part of his life (such as the embrace) as she goes by to another love.  The Valley to me is also a metaphorical environment for his trapped heart.  He is surrounded on both sides by rising cliffs, encircling him and towering over. This is symbolic of being trapped in a jail as well as being wrapped in a loved ones arms.

I used a bamboo reed pen with black dip ink on this drawing. I wanted to use the dip pen because I like the unpredictability and rawness of the line produced; it allows for more emotion and less thought to come through in a drawing.  At the forefront of the drawing is a lone mane, standing on the roof of his castle, plucking away a tune to his lost love, as she sails away on the river along the valley floor.