Scherzo - Dance of Death

Song Meaning

This track bids a dramatic farewell to a world of polite society and intellectual discourse, characterized by "drawing room's civilised cry" and "professors' sensible whereto and why." The lyrics paint a stark contrast between this former order and a new reality where "matters are settled with gas and bomb." The narrator is shedding the "frangible wares" and "branches of olive," suggesting a rejection of peace and delicate pursuits for something far more volatile. The central tension arises from the eruption of a primal, destructive force, personified by the "Devil" breaking "parole and arisen." This figure, cast out from a paternalistic "well," seems to represent a chaotic, untamed power that the narrator feels compelled to embrace. The "behaving of man" is depicted as a "world of horror," a "sedent'ry Sodom and slick Gomorrah," indicating a profound disillusionment with humanity's current state and a desire to actively participate in its upheaval. The most striking craft element is the juxtaposition of the mundane and the apocalyptic. The image of "skies are lit up like a Christmas tree" is a chillingly beautiful, yet terrifying, visual that masks the underlying destruction. This is amplified by the star's "warning cry" that "Mankind is alive but mankind must die," a stark, almost biblical pronouncement. The repeated "goodbye" in the final stanza, from the "house with its wallpaper red" to "dear heart," underscores the finality of this transition, a complete severance from past comforts and relationships. These lyrics achieve their potent effect through this abrupt shift from the refined to the savage, and the stark, almost fatalistic pronouncements. The narrator's decision to "take charge of the liquid fire" and "storm the cities of human desire", driven by "order and trumpet and anger and drum!", positions them as an agent of this destructive, yet perhaps cathartic, change. The final goodbyes are not mournful but resolute, marking a decisive break with a world deemed irredeemable.