Night Vision

This song is an unusual lullaby. Most such songs are simple phrases about sleep itself or the comfort of a nearby motherly presence.

This lullaby offers concrete advice for confronting the under-bed and closet-dwelling monsters that shadows create in small children's bedrooms: "By night beware... half the world [lies] in fear" due to nightfall.

No, you won't be able to see well once the Sun has set, the speaker admits to her young charge: "The table, the guitar, the empty glass/ All will blend together when the daylight has passed."

However, you are not without resources you can marshal to your defense, she continues. You can still tell what objects are without color to help, when "darkness" places "her hand across your face."

How? By looking at their silhouettes: "Find the line, find the shape," she teaches. "Find the outline-- Things will/ Tell you their name."

This way, you can once again feel mastery over your room, she concluded. Everything is the same-- it only looks different. So you have to adapt... and see differently.

The key is to remember not to be afraid in the first place. Keep your wits about you: "Don't give in too quickly" to fear.

The speaker at last says she can "watch" the child "falling into sleep... watch your... eyes dim/ In blind faith." Ultimately, sleep arrives, but peacefully now. The child has come to trust her surroundings as being familiar and safe. She can relax enough to sleep.

The song ends with the speaker admitting her own limitations. "I would shelter you [emphasis mine]/ And keep you in light." In an ideal world, it would always be easy to see our surroundings and to feel control over them.

However, not even Mommy can keep the Sun from going down. And, as much as she'd love to, she can't always be there for her child.

But she can teach her child to need her less, and to learn to navigate the shadows alone: "I can only teach you/ Night vision," the ability to see without very much light, and to fill in the world with your own knowledge of it when there is little light to help.

Next Song: Solitude Standing