Prophecy

Song Description

A while ago I was in the train and getting near Sligo ... A man got into the carriage and began to play on a fiddle .. The sounds filled me with the strangest emotions. I seemed to hear a voice of lamentation out of the Golden Age. It told me that we are imperfect, incomplete, and no longer like a perfectly woven web, but like a bundle of cords knotted together and flung into a corner. It said that the world was once all perfect and kindly, and that still the perfect and kindly world existed, but buried like a mass of roses under many spadefuls of earth. The faeries and the more innocent of the spirits dwelt within it, and lamented over our fallen world in the lamentation of the wind-tossed reeds, in the song of the birds, in the moan of the waves, and in the sweet cry of the fiddle. It said that if only they who lived in the Golden Age could die we might be happy for the sad voices would be still. But they must sing; and we must weep, until the eternal gates swing open. "The Golden Age", Celtic Twilight (1893) W.B. Yeats

Song Length 2:39 Genre Rock - General, World - Celtic
Tempo Medium Slow (91 - 110) Lead Vocal Female Vocal
Mood Miserable, Moving Subject Crying, Regret
Similar Artists Natalie Merchant, Suzanne Vega Language English
Era 2000 and later

Lyrics

I swear by the blood running red
By the stars in my eyes
By the charm above our bed
What's done is done
And we will ever be lamenting
No words can heal
Or bring you ease

Keep the flame flickering
Don't let the darkness win

And if there really is
A kind and perfect world
It's a buried mass of roses
Under spadefuls of earth
And we must weep
And we must sing
And keep the little flame
Flickering

Lyrics Susan McKeown Music Susan McKeown, Jon Spurney
Producer Susan McKeown, Jon Spurney Publisher Sheila-na-Gig Music (IMRO)
Performance Susan McKeown and the Chanting House Label SNG Music

Other Songs By Susan McKeown

Song
Actions
South
Rock - General
Plays: 93
Ballinaboula
Rock - General
Plays: 54
What Did I Ever Do To You?
Rock - General
Plays: 92
Seven Cold Glories
Rock - General
Plays: 82
Wheels of the World
Rock - General
Plays: 67
Chances Are
Rock - General
Plays: 63
Be Brave Love Be Strong
Rock - General
Plays: 103
River
Rock - General
Plays: 396
Because I Could Not Stop For Death (featuring Natalie Merchant)
Rock - General
Plays: 1,272
Waterlanding
Folk - Contemporary
Plays: 67
View All Songs
Clean Clean

Clean Clean

Artist Name
00:00 / 00:00