Sting - Songs from the Labyrinth Album Lyrics

(John Dowland)

[Instrumental]

(John Dowland)

Can she excuse my wrongs with Virtue's cloak?
Shall I call her good when she proves unkind?
Are those clear fires which vanish into smoke?
Must I praise the leaves where no fruit I find?

No, no, where shadows do for bodies stand
Thou may'st be abus'd if thy sight be dimmed
Cold love is like to words written on sand
Or to bubbles which on the water swim
Wilt thou be thus abused still
Seeing that she will right thee never?
If thou cans't not o'ercome her will
Thy love will be thus fruitless ever

Wilt thou be thus abused still
Seeing that she will right thee never?
If thou cans't not o'ercome her will
Thy love will be thus fruitless ever

Was I so base, that I might not aspire
Unto those high joys which she holds from me?
As they are high, so high is my desire
If she this deny, what can granted be?

If she will yield to that which Reason is
It is Reason's will that Love should be just
Dear, make me happy still by granting this
Or cut off delays if that I die must
Better a thousand times to die
Than for to live thus still tormented
Dear, but remember it was I
Who for thy sake did die contented

Better a thousand times to die
Than for to live thus still tormented
Dear, but remember it was I
Who for thy sake did die contented

Flow my teares fall from your springs,
Exilde for ever: Let me morne
Where nights black bird hir sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorne.

Downe vaine lights shine you no more,
No nights are dark enough for those
That in dispaire their last fortunes deplore,
Light doth but shame disclose.

Never may my woes be relieved,
Since pittie is fled,
And teares, and sighes, and grones
My wearie days of all joyes have deprived.

From the highest spire of contentment,
My fortune is throwne,
And feare, and griefe, and paine
For my deserts, are my hopes since hope is gone.

Hark you shadowes that in darnesse dwell,
Learn to contemne light,
Happy that in hell
Feele not the worlds despite.

Fine knacks for ladies, cheap, choice, brave and new,
Good pennyworths but money cannot move,
I keep a fair but for the fair to view,
A beggar may be liberal of love.
Though all my wares be trash, the heart is true.

Great gifts are guiles and look for gifts again,
My trifles come as treasures from my mind,
It is a precious jewel to be plain,
Sometimes in shell the Orient's pearls we find.
Of others take a sheaf, of me a grain.

Within this pack pins, points, laces and gloves,
And divers toys fitting a country fair,
But in my heart, where duty serves and loves,
Turtles and twins, Court's brood, a heav'nly pair.
Happy the man that thinks of no removes.

Come heavy sleepe the image of true death
And close up these my weary weeping eyes
Whose spring of tears doth stop my vitall breath
And tears my hart with sorrows sigh swoln cries

Come and posses my tired thoughts worn soul
That living dies, that living dies, that living dies
Till thou on me be stoule

Come and posses my tired thoughts worn soul
That living dies, that living dies, that living dies
Till thou on me be stoule

Come shape of rest and shadow of my end
Allied to death child to his blackfac'd, his blackfac'd night
Come thou and charme these rebels in my breast
Whose waking fancies doe my mind affright

O come sweet sleepe come or I die for ever
Come ere my last, comes come ere my last sleepe comes
Or come, or come never

(John Dowland)

[Instrumental]

(John Dowland)

[Extract from a letter to Sir Robert Cecil...]

Wilt thou unkind thus reave me
Of my heart, of my heart,
And so leave me, and so leave me?

Wilt thou unkind thus reave me
Of my heart, of my heart,
And so leave me, and so leave me?

Farewell! Farewell!
But yet or e'er I part, O cruel,
Kiss me, sweet, kiss me,
Sweet, sweet my jewel.

Hope by disdain grows cheerless,
Fear doth love, love doth fear
Beauty peerless, beauty peerless.

Farewell! Farewell!
But yet or e'er I part, O cruel,
Kiss me, sweet, kiss me,
Sweet, sweet my jewel.

If no delayes can move thee,
Life shall die, death shall live
Still to love thee, still to love thee?

Farewell! Farewell!
But yet or e'er I part, O cruel,
Kiss me, sweet, kiss me,
Sweet, sweet my jewel.

Yet be thou mindfull ever,
Heat from fire, fire from heat
None can see sever, none can sever

Farewell! Farewell!
But yet or e'er I part, O cruel,
Kiss me, sweet, kiss me,
Sweet, sweet my jewel.

True love cannot be changed
Though delight from desert
Be estranged, be estranged.

Farewell! Farewell!
But yet or e'er I part, O cruel,
Kiss me, sweet, kiss me,
Sweet, sweet my jewel.

(John Dowland)

[Instrumental]

Cleare or cloudie sweet as April showring,
Smooth or frowning so is hir face to mee,
Pleasd or smiling like milde May all flowring,
When skies blew silke and medowes carpets bee,
Hir speeches notes of that night bird that singeth,
Who thought all sweet yet jarring notes outringeth.

Hir grace like June, when earth and trees bee trimde,
In best attire of compleat beauties height,
Hir love againe like sommers daies bee dimde,
With little cloudes of doubtfull constant faith,
Hir trust hir doubt, like raine and heat in Skies,
Gently thundring, she lightning to mine eies.

Sweet sommer spring that breatheth life and growing,
In weedes as into herbs and flowers,
And sees of service divers sorts in sowing,
Some haply seeming and some being yours,
Raine on your herbs and flowers that truly serve,
And let your weeds lack dew and duly starve.

(John Dowland)

The lowest trees have tops, the ant her gall
The fly her spleen, the little spark his heat;
The slender hairs cast shadows, through but small,
And bees have stings, although they be not great;
Seas have their source, and so have shallow springs;
And love is love, in beggars and in kings.

Where waters smoothest run, there deepest are the fords,
The dial stirs, yet none perceives it move;
The firmest faith is found in fewest words,
The turtles cannot sing, and yet they love;
True hearts have ears, and eyes, no tongues to speak;
They hear, and see, and sign, and then they break

(John Dowland)

[Instrumental]

(John Dowland)

Come again! sweet love doth now invite
Thy graces that refrain
To do me due delight,
To see, to hear, to touch, to kiss, to die,
With thee again in sweetest sympathy.

Come again! that I may cease to mourn
Through thy unkind disdain;
For now left and forlorn
I sit, I sigh, I weep, I faint, I die
In deadly pain and endless misery.

All the day the sun that lends me shine
By frowns doth cause me pine
And feeds me with delay;
Her smiles, my springs that makes my joy to grow,
Her frowns the winter of my woe.

All the night my sleeps are full of dreams,
My eyes are full of streams.
My heart takes no delight

Have you seen but a bright lily grow Before rude hands have touched it?
Have you marked but the fall of snow
Before the soil hath smutched it?
Have you felt the wool of beaver,
Or swan's down ever?
Or have smelt o' the bud o' the brier,
Or the nard in the fire?
Or have tasted the bag of the bee?
O so white, O so soft, O so sweet is she!

In darkness let me dwell; the ground shall sorrow be,
The roof despair, to bar all cheerful light from me;
The walls of marble black, that moist'ned still shall weep;
My music, hellish jarring sounds, to banish friendly sleep.
Thus, wedded to my woes, and bedded in my tomb,
O let me dying live, till death doth come, till death doth come.

In darkness let me dwell

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in fields of gold

So she took her love for to gaze awhile
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold

Will you stay with me? Will you be my love?
Among the fields of barley
We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in fields of gold

See the west wind move like a lover so
Upon the fields of barley
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth
Among the fields of gold

I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in fields of gold
We walk in fields of gold

Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold

Just a castaway
An island lost at sea
Another lonely day
With no one here but me
More loneliness
Than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair

I'll send an SOS to the world [2x]
I hope that someone gets my [3x]
Message in a bottle [2x]

A year has passed since I wrote my note
But I should have known this right from the start
Only hope can keep me together
Love can mend your life
But love can break your heart

I'll send an SOS to the world [2x]
I hope that someone gets my [3x]
Message in a bottle [4x]

Walked out this morning
Don't believe what I saw
A hundred billion bottles
Washed up on the shore
Seems I'm not alone at being alone
A hundred billion castaways
Looking for a home

I'll send an SOS to the world [2x]
I hope that someone gets my [3x]
Message in a bottle [4x]

Sending out an SOS [16x]