Reed, Lou - The City In The Sea / Shadow Lyrics






Death has reared himself a throne

In a strange city
Alone

Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city
Alone
Their shrines and palaces are not like ours
They do not tremble and rot
Eaten with time

Death has reared himself a throne

Lifted by forgotten winds
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie
A crown of stars

In a strange city
Alone

A heaven God does not condemn
But the everlasting shadow
Makes mockery of it all

No holy rays come down
Lights from the lurid deep sea
Stream up the turrets silently
Up thrones, up arbors
Of sculpted ivy and stone flowers
Up domes, up spires
Kingly halls all are melancholy shrines
The columns, frieze and entablature
Chokingly shockingly intertwined
The mast the viol and the vine
Twisted

There amid no earthly moans
Hell rises from a thousand thrones
Does reverence to death
And death does give his undivided time

There are open temples
And graves on a level with the waves
Death looms and looks
Huge
Gigantic
There is a ripple
Now a wave
Towers thrown aside
Sinking in the dull tide
The waves glowing redder
The very hours losing their breath

All the cunning stars
Watching fitfully over night after night of
Matchless ........ sleep
Matched only with the whole of dream .......
The tell-tale beating of the heart
The ......... breath
The desire, the pose
One poses upon the precipice
To fall to run to dive to tumble to fall down
Down into the spiral down and then
One sees one's own death
One sees one committing murder or atrocious violent acts
And then across the shadow
Not of man or God
But the shadow resting upon the brazen doorway

There were seven of us there
Who saw the shadow as it came out from among the draperies
But we did not dare behold it
We looked down into the depths of the mirror of ebony
And the apparition spoke
"I am a shadow
And I dwell in the catacombs
Which border
The country of illusion
Hard by the dim plains of wishing"

And then did we start shuddering
Starting from our seats
Trembling
For the tones in the voice of the shadow
Were not the tones of any one man
But of a multitude of beings
And varying in their cadences
From syllable to syllable
Fell duskily upon our ears in the well
Remembered and familiar accents
Of a thousand departed friends





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Reed, Lou The City In The Sea / Shadow Comments
  1. M.... B....

    Death has reared himself a throne

    In a strange city
    Alone

    Death has reared himself a throne
    In a strange city
    Alone
    Their shrines and palaces are not like ours
    They do not tremble and rot
    Eaten with time

    Death has reared himself a throne

    Lifted by forgotten winds
    Resignedly beneath the sky
    The melancholy waters lie
    A crown of stars

    In a strange city
    Alone

    A heaven God does not condemn,
    But the everlasting shadow
    Makes mockery of it all

    No holy rays come down
    Lights from the lurid deep sea
    Stream up the turrets silently
    Up thrones, up arbors
    Of sculpted ivy and stone flowers
    Up domes, up spires
    Kingly halls all are melancholy shrines
    The columns, frieze, and entablature
    Chokingly, shockingly intertwined
    The mast, the viol, and the vine twisted

    There amid no earthly moans
    Hell rises from a thousand thrones
    Does reverence to death
    And death does give his undivided time

    There are open temples
    And graves on a level with the waves
    Death looms and looks
    Huge,
    Gigantic
    There is a ripple,
    Now a wave
    Towers thrown aside
    Sinking in the dull tide
    The waves growing redder,
    The very hours losing their breath

    Oh, the cunning stars
    Watching fitfully over night after night of matchless, wretched sleep
    Matched only with the horror of the dream unfolding
    The tell-tale beating of the heart
    The suffocating breath,
    The desire, the pose
    One poses upon the precipice
    To fall, to run, to dive, to tumble, to fall down
    Down into the spiral, down and then
    One sees one's own death
    One sees one committing murder or atrocious violent acts
    And then a cursed the shadow
    Not of man or God
    But a shadow resting upon the brazen doorway

    There were seven of us there
    Who saw the shadow as it came out from among the draperies,
    But we did not dare behold it
    We looked down into the depths of the mirror of ebony
    And the apparition spoke,
    "I am a shadow
    And I dwell in the catacombs
    which border the country of illusion hard by the dim plains of wishing"

    And then did we start shuddering,
    Starting from our seats,
    Trembling
    For the tones in the voice of the shadow were not the tones of any one man
    But of a multitude of beings
    And varying in their cadences
    From syllable to syllable
    Fell duskily upon our ears in the well-remembered and familiar accents of a thousand departed friends

  2. R.... B....

    good stuff to blast on your porch on Halloween