#SummerOfSpace Song


This song is in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch, Moon landing, and splashdown.  It was a great mission and a beautiful moment that brought the world together.  

This song uses "personification".  That means that we give a non-human thing human-like characteristics.  Here, the narrator is speaking to the Moon as if it were a person and a friend. The narrator even sees the Moon as having "hands".   

There is "wordplay" in the first line with the word "distant".  This word can mean things are physically far apart, but it can also mean (especially when it comes to relationships) that people have lost touch or emotionally grown apart.  

There is a lot of "allusions" here.  Most of it making reference to important dates, locations, equipment, or other items related to the Moon missions.  For instance, the "Gods of time and of light" phrase refers to Saturn and Apollo (the launch vehicle and the space craft).  The years mentioned are allusions to U.S. space activities.

Repetition of the word "lost" ties together the first three stanzas.  This type of repetition is called "epimone".  It serves to stress the feeling of wonder and awe that these past lunar activities brought to the narrator.  It also serves to bring "contrast" when compared to the final stanza.  The first three stanzas stress the memory of the amazing past events (or being lost in the past), whereas the the final stanza looks to the future "with refocused eyes".  The title of the song contrasts that idea as well.  Reflection tends to be looking back and thinking about a particular subject, whereas hope tends to be for something in the future.  This song has the narrator looking back and thinking about the Apollo 11 mission, the hope he, and the world, felt and then applying that hope for future missions.

There is dialect, by way of slang or colloquialism, with the phrase "souped up".  This tells you a little about the personality and age of the narrator.  He is likely not a technically-minded engineering or science person, but more of a passionate everyday individual who hopes to get back to the Moon.  


Reflection of Hope

Hello my distant grey friend
It’s been a while since
We walked in darkness and
Abandoned footprints
Oh, how I long to go
Back to the Zone where no winds blow
We’ve all got a dark side
Get lost in yours and try to hide

It seems that gravity is
Depleted between you and me
We find tranquility and get
Lost in her arid sea
And I desire to ride
In your derived tide
On sling shot Eagle’s wings we glide
With Gods of time and of light

In ’68 you looked alone from
This crowded viewing window
In ’69 we first met when
Strong arms took a small step
It’s been since ’72 that I
Last got lost on you
Your reflected light’s on my mind
Shines bright by the shoreline night

You’ve made new friends since then
It won’t be long until I’m in your hands again
I’ll toe the line
I’ll buy us time
I’ve got supplies and a souped-up disguise
Redesigned an all new ride
So hold on tight
With refocused eyes
We’ll watch the Earthrise


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x2rNAPcOchhmhMjO3hvz9KvIqZ2B2J1n/view?usp=sharing

Earthrise
Image credit to NASA ( https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html )

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