The Conqueror Worm

	  		Am 
Lo! 't is a gala night 
C                    Em 
Within the lonesome latter years!  
Am 
An angel throng, bewinged, bedight 
C              Em 
In veils, and drowned in tears,  
Am 
Sit in a theatre, to see 
C          Em 
A play of hopes and fears, 
Am 
While the orchestra breathes fitfully  
C                 Em 
The music of the spheres. 

Am 
Mimes, in the form of God on high,  
C           Em 
Mutter and mumble low, 
Am 
And hither and thither fly -  
     C                 Em 
Mere puppets they, who come and go  
Am 
At bidding of vast formless things 
    C                  Em 
That shift the scenery to and fro, 
Am 
Flapping from out their Condor wings 
C   Em 
  Invisible Wo! 

Bridge or whatever - Dm Am C Em 


Am  
That motley drama - oh, be sure  
C            Em 
It shall not be forgot! 
Am 
With its Phantom chased for evermore  
      C          Em 
By a crowd that seize it not, 
Am                                   C 
Through a circle that ever returneth in  
        Em         
To the self - same spot, 
   Dm                    Am 
And much of Madness, and more of Sin,  
     C    Em                  Dm  
And Horror  the soul of the plot. 

(I start playing bridge on the "plot") 
Dm Am C Em  

Am 
But see, amid the mimic rout, 
  C         Em 
A crawling shape intrude! 
  Am 
A blood-red thing that writhes from out  
     C      Em 
The scenic solitude! 
    Am 
It writhes! - it writhes! - with mortal pangs  
    C       Em 
The mimes become its food, 
  Am 
And seraphs sob at vermin fangs 
     C           Em 
In human gore imbued. 

Dm Am C Em 

Am 
Out - out are the lights - out all!  
     C          Em 
And, over each quivering form, 
    Am 
The curtain, a funeral pall, 
      C              Em    
Comes down with the rush of a storm,  
 Am  
While the angels, all pallid and wan,  
  C           Em 
Uprising, unveiling, affirm 
         Am 
That the play is the tragedy, "Man,"  
         C   Em              Dm 
And its hero, the Conqueror Worm. 
(Again, the bridge) 


Dm Am C Em