Song Meaning
Hanrahan's plea opens with a desperate call for a "Mother of Peace," a figure cloaked in a "purple hood," suggesting a spiritual or maternal solace that has vanished. The immediate contrast is stark: a yearning for peace against the violent imagery of "winds that awakened the stars" now "blowing through my blood." This isn't just a metaphorical storm; it's an internal, visceral upheaval.
The core tension lies in this overwhelming internal chaos, a feeling of being forgotten by the very source of peace he invokes. The wish for the "death-pale deer" to "trampled the mountain away" and "drunk up the murmuring tide" is a powerful, almost nihilistic desire for obliteration. He doesn't just want the source of his distress gone; he wants the entire landscape, the very fabric of his world, erased.
The repeated line, "For the winds that awakened the stars / Are blowing through my blood," acts as a relentless refrain, anchoring the speaker's distress. It links cosmic, primal forces to his innermost being, suggesting a profound, almost fated disturbance. The image of the "Mother of Peace" forgetting him "Under her purple hood" is particularly poignant, transforming a symbol of comfort into one of oblivious concealment, deepening his sense of abandonment.
This lament is effective because it grounds abstract spiritual longing in raw, physical sensation. The lyrics don't just state Hanrahan is troubled; they make you feel the "winds" in his "blood." The desire for total annihilation, while extreme, speaks to a profound despair that transcends simple sadness, resonating with the feeling of being utterly lost and forgotten.
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