Down in the Valley, the valley so low

I interpreted "Down in the Valley" as a rather sad love song about a prisoner longing for his lover. But the song also evokes a sense of serenity that suggests that the prisoner may have already accepted his fate of not being able to reunite with his lover and the possibility of his lover falling in love with someone else. He asks her to "give [his] heart ease" - the unrequited love is a reality, so perhaps the song is not merely of love but more of nostalgia.

With my visual response I tried to evoke that sense of serenity and nostalgia while also illustrating forlornness.



Yes, there are two figures in the drawing! The woman and the valley form a single entity, to illustrate nostalgia for the woman intermingled with longing for the valley.. The man is on the far right and he is facing the woman and the valley (has his back to the viewer).

I found it interesting how each student in the class interpreted one song very differently... though I believe Carlos and I had a similar interpretation of the song in recognizing the singer's melancholy.