My Dying Bride - A Map Of All Our Failures Album Lyrics

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Kneel Till Doomsday

I drank the meaning of her words, as theft
She danced for Chopin, but his request was that she left
The sea gave up his daughter for the moon
So weary she looked, as my arm lifts at noon

The fate of you and the world hung on his lonely choice
I cannot, but I would love to bury the dead again
Reward and punishment are the walls of a city bare

And it is within you comfort I show the mirror
A panic of rich desire leaps up from your burning face
The face that shows your eyes was my sole victim tonight

It’s for you, Christ, that my bodies’ here
You’re bold with your anger and your love is shrewd

He is quick so beware
The cold pool waits just for you
Pierced to the soul by heavens blade of dire shadows
Where she speaks with her lord
Her maker sits all alone
Deeds are fruit, words are leaves
Long shadows cast by old sins

She spoke of Christ to the deaf and the poor
The woman of fatalism is here now
Her heart creeps among shadows of sick children
The dying, graceful snow breaks her simple back

 

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The Poorest Waltz

Across the cedar covered river
Within the night that covers them
Up the hill toward dark gates
An approach so sweet yet again

Proffer the sightless with wine
Crank the old gramophone

To go up and dance with the blind girls
A secret so holy and dire
To waltz in the arms of innocence
Hushed delights from the choir

Shadows long and playful
Cast with broken old candles
Gowns worn and stressed
Yet graceful in tired old sandals

Strike up the scratchy old music
Tonight they won’t dance alone

Alas, the music does fade
Back to the village they creep
And leave the sanatorium
Its bars and rules, Just so

 

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A Tapestry Scorned

'Twas a frosted morn in winter deep
When Rosey left for wood
The fire was low just barely a glow
When Rosey left for wood

Upon the wall a tapestry hung
A farmyard, brook and lane
A pleasant scene, Naïve theme
With wheat and hay and grain

No figures old or young
The artist did include
But now upon that landscape fair
A woman rough and crude

Each day the image differed
The woman here and there
Then close like a portrait
It was Rosey standing there

I met a maid one summers day
I thought to make my wife
On getting home, the picture red
'Twas Rosey with a knife!

My new love I took to see
The rocks above the lake
And to my sin I pushed her in
The smile on Rosey’s face
Days did pass and I grew old
But Rosey looked the same
My bones were stiff, and hair was grey
But Rosey looked the same

Upon the bed and almost dead
She looked down on me
From the tapestry threads her hand did reach
My spirit now set free

After a time my friends did come
And were sorry to see me pale
The priest said what he thought was right
And they carried me away

My home was cleared, history sold
Empty was my place
'Cept a picture on the wall
Of lovers in embrace

 

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Like A Perpetual Funeral

I reach for my shadow in horror
Envy eats but its own cold heart
Some friends, the few I have left
Set sail out of the frame I’m in

He begins to die, That loses his desires
All are not merry that dance here lightly
Fear follows those who live by the sword and fire
My heart was my weapon, and the death of me

I saw the evening anew, all lean and red of hue
It’s a lonely ocean out there, watched from my shore of despair
So unto the sea my grief set sail, in disbelief
Fevers and time burn away, Nothing is allowed to stay

There is nothing new underneath the sun
The moon with its long arms, reaches into the sea
My eyes were towers high, in my heaven

And from my body drew a cold breath and final clue
The sun made clear its thoughts, It was never coming through

I saw the evening anew, all lean and red of hue
It’s a lonely ocean out there, watched from my shore of despair
So unto the sea my grief set sail, in disbelief
Fevers and time burn away, Nothing is allowed to stay

 

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A Map Of All Our Failures

I’m unaware of a response
From my errant dark red soul
Too deep to be spoken aloud
I bury a word right in my heart

Frost etched the tall windows
I have been cold for a long time
Borne upon winters shoulders

There are wolves here, many of them
I am staggered at their hatred of me

I lie in complete fear
I call the moths to tend me
I forget the form of my sins

And drained of motion, the air itself avoids me
And void of notion, unable to perceive
Mouth barely open, almost fearing to breathe
And there is no other sound at all

Just there, to the left, his shadow rose
I always knew he was coming
Takes the vacant chair beside me
With golden hands he moved the hair from my face

 

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Hail Odysseus

He surely sails on tameless seas
With idle hours in devils hands
One hundred men on tameless seas
Always searching for sacred land

Rain lashing raw shoulders
So heave, onwards, and heave again!
With wrists bangled in scars again

From below, she watched only him
Secretly, she watched only him
Stowaway, she crept so grim

He surely sails enchanted seas
Hearing voices he believes

Hail Odysseus, come to us
So heave onwards and heave toward us
With wrists bangled with gold and stars

And from below she screams out 'No! Odysseus, please don’t go’!
And you must fear the voice you hear
Already now, they’re so near
'And you will fall at the sirens call, into their poisoned claws!’

Fearing loss she watched them go
The sirens, she thought, take me
From below, she leapt into the sea

From the sea to the land, greeting her, a golden hand
'Welcome child, to our isle, become one, take my hand’
So it was, a new voice sung aloud from the sand

'So now sing, lure them in, Odysseus can be your king
The only way to love him, dear child, is to sing them in’

And so it was, the crew were lost, even brave Odysseus
Into her arms forevermore, she sings no longer on the shore

 

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Within The Presence Of Absence

Your eyes speak more than
More than your lips
More than your mouth
Bare were your summer
Shoulders and arms
And slender neck

She rose up beautiful before me
And bare she walks the morning anew
It is the wound she gave me
Through my heart, drives her rain

Her face under the sky is full of golden sun
I drew her through the midnight sky on iron leaves

There is no name for you
You fed me wine on a tender voyage

Within your silk, I love to forget
I step around you softly
Drown away your little hatreds
Your pain is just a memory
As your summer fruit decays
My fire for you stays
Your body is a legend

I launched into her as the earth began to die
It is within her, my name is now known
The hand draws slowly back to the poor art of my eye
These are not fingers I have
Put off your air of tragedy
The art of light on your body
Falls apart in the moonlight

Your eyes speak more than
More than you lips
More than your mouth
Bare were your summer
Shoulders and arms
And slender neck

 

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Abandoned As Christ

And me kissing Christ, with one eye on his crown
I came killing through the dark
My victims, please take a bow
With great thought, my words are launched
Right into the baying crowd

The lies drop off my tongue
As I wept before the fight
There is no help in heaven
Waste me unto your rotten kin
Your words are those very thorns
Your last lie still fresh on your lips

And me, with a finger of glass pushed through your heart
I’ll hide your name in a dying church for your shame
You see, I want to come in first peace oh my lord
Where was God when I most needed him?

 

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My Faults Are Your Rewards

[Bonus Track]

The sweetheart of Death, it reaches for me
I ask the meaning for us
The midnight of you, swims into sunlight
I couldn't be more obvious
A river beside, it went by them all
And ordered the words from the sea

I stumbled over hills to be with her
As the sun dropped her flesh
I gave up my tears, crawling from grief
To tell the story of her death
My faults are your, your reward
My fears look up, I watch the lord

Then God fell into my arms
Orating lonely psalms
With his flag proudly waved
Above the good and brave