Gabrielle Aplin has a large tattoo on the inside of her left upper arm which says “Our dried voices, when / We whisper together / Are quiet and meaningless”. These lines come from the poem “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot, which is her favorite poem as well as the inspiration for the song “Start Of Time” on her album English Rain.
On her blog, she wrote:
Start of time was inspired by my favourite poem ‘The Hollow Men – T. S. Eliot’. There’s a extract from the poem that has been embedded in my mind from the first day I read it: “Our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless” It means lots to different people, but for me, it was about not following the crowd because people will notice one person saying one thing that’s outrageously different, than a group of people shouting the same thing over and over. I recently had this tattoo’d on to me. Start Of Time is having an idea so different and finding someone who shares the same thoughts and beliefs.
