The Colonial Wing Lyrics by 10000 Maniacs

The Colonial Wing Lyrics

    [ music: robert buck/lyric: natalie merchant ]



    Here is the store house of her majesty
    Well guarded by sentry
    But looks are free

    Call this the rayless and benighted age
    Witches by tallow candles shifted
    Shifted their shapes
    Here is the pestle and mortar
    That ground the poison seed
    A lute, a suit for jousting
    And the poems of a balladeer
    When all the latin books were copied off
    In golden script
    Well hoarded away in
    A monastery crypt

    Superstition
    Superstition beyond belief

    Over mountain, over dune and over sea
    Crude map and compass lead the caravan
    And lead the fleet
    Here's the loot and plunder
    They bore home
    Ivory tusk inlaid with precious stone
    Raw silk and spices by the barrel load
    A soft skin drum with mallets
    Of human bone

    A world wide rampage
    Rampage of greed

    So here the tour concludes
    The colonial wing
    The rooms of the most refined
    Museum property
    An early pair of spectacles
    A claw footed divan
    Ornate clocks with birds that strut
    On the half hours and quarter hours

    Hear them chime

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