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Pete Atkin >> Words >> The colours of the night
(Message started by: Sylfest on Today at 18:18)

Title: The colours of the night
Post by Sylfest on Today at 18:18
Behold the colours of the night
The crimson lake, the China white ...

I happened upon the same juxtaposition of 'crimson lake' and 'China white' in a haunting poem caller Curzon's Foundling, by Pat Winslow

"... cracked skin - crimson lake,
a dab of china white ..."

http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=15166

Pat's poem imagines a foundling monk in a Mount Athos monastery, who has never seen a woman or any representation of one except the Virgin Mary.

I am sure there's no connection with Clive's lyric, but to me those pigment colours have always suggested a blended skin tone - something far removed from the battle scene.

Title: Re: The colours of the night
Post by avner greenberg on 22.07.16 at 08:06
That's quite some discovery Sylfest!
I suppose it could be coincidental, but the odds on that would be long.
Perhaps the phrase lodged itself in CJ's latent memory and surfaced at the opportune moment.
Doesn't this song just continue to keep nagging at us a year on?

Many thanks for your observation and the reference.

Avner



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