DAPHNE IN WINTER (2011)
(piano: Paul Kerrigan; performed live at a Zoe Mulford concert)
(v1)
No you can’t
No you can’t
No you can’t
Turn lead into gold
Alchemists
Scientists
Wizards and gods
Know nature won’t do what it’s told
And hasty decisions
She thinks of regretting
When the leaves
Start to turn
And the roots are too deep
For forgetting
(chorus)
The river isn’t always going to flow
And love’s just an echo from so long ago
You’ve been staring long enough to know
The sun shines brightest on the snow
(v2)
And you can’t
Run from love
If love is
Determined to find you
There are offerings
Conjurings
Prayers to the gods
And destinies someone assigned you
She stands by the river
Surrounded by men
And watches
The maidens surrender
Again and again
(chorus)
The river isn’t always going to flow, etc.
(bridge)
Faith, hope and chastity
Bound by her own decree
Watching the love she renounced
Bloom each year
Under a laurel tree
(v3)
And if love
Will not come
In the Spring
Why curse at the cold?
There are soothsayers
Botanists
Druids and gods
Who know how the story unfolds
Now Daphne in Winter
Stands barren and shaken
And waits for
The river to thaw
And the buds to awaken
(chorus)
The river isn’t always going to flow, etc.
.....The sun shines brighest on the snow
©2011 Z. Mulls
Karen and Amy Jones, two folk-singer sisters, put out a lovely EP called DAPHNE IN WINTER. Daphne was a river nymph who, to avoid being taken in lust by the god Apollo, was turned into a laurel tree. The EP had lovely drawings of the girl, and the tree, etc.
But they hadn’t actually written a song with that name or about that subject. It was just the title of the EP. I felt there needed to be a song, and wrote this lyric. Eventually I composed my own simple melody for it.
This recording was from the first time I sang it
