Name: Donati's Comet
Duration: P00H06M01S
Description: Terry Clarke

Donati's Comet

from Moon Over The Downs by Various Artists

	/

about

Terry Clarke

lyrics

Donati's Comet

William Turner of Oxford is on his horse,
riding between fields and old barn doors.
Fields that should be blacker than a widow's dress,
but tonight there's a comet burning in the west.
The frost is building on the thatched walls as
William Turner picks up his pen and draws.

The light that falls from Donati's Comet.

Well it's the 5th of October 1858
and the cattle are restless behind the wicker gates.
There's an owl swooping through the beech trees
as the comet light sparkles between the reeds.
William Turner is up on the Downs tethering his horse
and trying to map that comet's course
but as he shields his eyes a tear falls
as he realises he'll never catch it all.

The light that falls from Donati's Comet.

Next morning he's mixing gum and powder on a plate
and tracing that comet's tail with a dark stain.
Thinking of all that light that flooded his eyes
and how he'll never see its like again in his time.
Leaves are falling one by one into the Thames
and a stonemason hammers at a monument to the dead.
On his palette the blues and greens turn to black
and the chisel chips time into a dark sack.

credits

from Moon Over The Downs, released July 1, 2003
Terry Clarke & Trailer Star

license

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trailer star Nottingham, UK

It’s hard going at times but glory can come from misery. The fragility and the feeling of being on the edge of toppling over is balanced by the skeletal beauty of the songs.
Paul Kerr - Blabber n' Smoke

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