Peter Hammill
The Light Continent
[Chorus]
All the fields that you've overflown are frozen
They flow like glass down the frame in formlessness
Only the fragile fluttering of your heart still marks you chosen
Chosen to dare, your face defiant of the featureless
Your face defies the featureless
You're facing the featureless
[Verse 1]
A horizon of light blurs the boundaries of whiteness
As the distance is shimmered into timeless brightness now
[Verse 2]
And the slow flooding tide is begun as it's ended –
The barometer dropping and the fog descended
Down, down
[Verse 3]
In this endless day, at this hour long-appointed
Subterranean humming and the compass unpointed
The compass disjointed, the compass down
[Bridge]
Deep in the core the heart of ice forms
A tempo of life like that of stalagmites
A flood of the frozen
The flux of the blood
Aflame in antarctic white
[Verse 4]
Any marks that you made only scratched at the surface
Only retinal image ties you into the circuit now
[Verse 5]
In this empty expanse every shadow is shining
The indifference of nature: your significance tiny now
Dive down
[Chorus]
All the fields that you've overflown are frozen
They flow like glass down the frame in formlessness
Only the fragile fluttering of your heart still marks you chosen
Chosen to dare, your face defiant of the featureless
Your face defies the featureless
You're facing the featureless
[Outro]
Timeless the day, absorbing every wavelength of the light
Frozen in place, our footfall on the ice
What have our shadows meant
In the light continent
In the light continent?