Driftwood 8


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page 55  Continuing Bigney's poem, note "distant shore" near the end:  
 * But far away,

Down in the depths, or to some distant shore, Or on some life-supporting fragment, o’er
 * The water’s play,

The lost were chiefly borne. How few again Shall ever mingle in the walks of men!
 * — Mark F. Bigney, "Last Island"

We can guess that there's no other book of poems where the phrase "far distant shore" is used twice: Syd himself wrote "a distant shore" and "a far distant shore". Bigney came close, having written here "far away" just a few words before "distant shore", and the Homeric "from a far, distant shore" in his main poem "The Forest Pilgrim". He also wrote "sought thy distant shore" in a third poem in his book.

In Hearn's book, on the other hand, we can find shells near shallow waters. Though the waters don't sweep the shells as in Opel, to make up for it there's something that squeaks.  From the shell-reefs of Pointe-au-Fer to the shallows of Pelto Bay the dead lie mingled with the high-heaped drift; — from their cypress groves the vultures rise to dispute a share of the feast with the shrieking frigate-birds and squeaking gulls. — Lafcadio Hearn, Chita: A Memory of Last Island Anyway, it's obvious that Syd did not use the copy and paste technique when writing his lyrics, * but we now have enough elements to reach an interpretation that makes sense.

For example, the pebble may be seen as standing alone to represent a Sisyphean stone which is no longer carried, the ease of a floating life preferred, visualized as life floating on driftwood, even though the stone was beautiful and the driftwood already half-buried. Out of modesty, Syd may have thought of his work as a pebble among the great masterpieces of the past, though his multicoloured work would later become a milestone in psychedelic music.  * Also, it may sound unlikely that Syd used old American books like Bigney's one, probably never reprinted during the whole 20th century and then quite rare in the 60s.  sources →  Bigney, Mark Frederick. "Last Island." The Forest Pilgrims, and Other Poems. New Orleans: J. A. Gresham, 1867. 60. Print. http://www.archive.org/stream/forestpilgrims00bignrich#page/n61/mode/2up Hearn, Lafcadio. Chita: A Memory of Last Island. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1889. 55. Print. http://www.archive.org/stream/chitamemoryoflas00hearuoft#page/54/mode/2up