Travelling Late

11 hours ago by @ttg105

Liner Notes

#goth #postpunk #pagan

The chorus, as explained by Wikipedia: “Elm do grieve, Oak do Hate, Willow do Walk, if Yew travels late” is an old English folk rhyme that warns travelers to be careful when walking near trees at night. The rhyme may also refer to the properties of the trees themselves.
Explanation
Elm: After a bacterial infection, elm trees can weep a dark, sticky liquid that leaves tear stains.
Oak: During dry spells in the summer, oak trees can suddenly drop limbs.
Willow: Willow trees layer their limbs where they touch the ground, making it easier for them to walk than yew trees.
Yew: Yew trees layer their limbs where they touch the ground.
Purpose
The rhyme may have originated from pre-Christian paganism. It may also be a simple recognition of the trees' properties.

The rest of the lyrics are just a round-up of lyrical chunks that I jotted down this month but never used. The "orange sky" is a reference to you-know-who.

Lyrics

"Elm do grieve, Oak do Hate,
Willow do Walk, if Yew travels late"

Planets drop out of tumbling skies and stars smolder and sizzle
and the clouds dissolve in the hands of a frustrated god
who swipes the world away with his right hand
and curses life with the left
so stick with the old and out with the new
tongue-tied trio back with two
birds, silvery words and a slippery raccoon
the redbird and the dead words

Skullbone riders and rapidly rising rivers of woe
and the sky flies open and the sun runs away and
the gathering of the gloaming and the roaming
and the crumbling plains and unraveling skies
and the stars shooting far out of the heavens

The eleven horsemen - the Norsemen - sitting in Valhalla
singing Viking ballads and building salad cabins in the
forest and the rabbit that dug a hole at the edge of a glowing world
of flowering herds of stars that harvest the maelstrom the whirlpool
the school of wishes in silk shores and the middling moors
of meddlesome slumber under an orange sky

Comments