The Sound of water Hot

SteveR

SteveR

Member
I am curious if there could be a subtle reference to tea in the English custom going on in the bath song. To me, the sound of hot water pouring into a cup is always a little different than the sound of cold water. In discussing the bath song, I agree it seems to be moving from descriptions of sound to descriptions of images, but I wonder if there is a layer in which sound is still involved in the steaming, hot water.

(Full disclosure, I am a musician and sound of all sorts fascinates me and grabs my mind the way few other things do, so if you don't hear the difference between cold water and hot water pouring, I completely understand.)
 
Another layer to the hot water and bath song: I suspect that there is something of Tolkien's military past here. A warm bath after a long march in the British countryside -- let alone the horrible mud and cold water of the trenches of the Somme -- would make a bath feel like a glorious thing. It calls to mind, in a more comedic vein, the episode of M*A*S*H where the 4077th gets a bathtub and the entire camp wants their turn to cool off.
 
Anybody who has gone hiking knows the wonderfulness of a hot bath or shower when you get in. I never take a hot shower without repeating the 3rd verse to myself, and I've been doing it for more than 40 years.
 
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