A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
While Wilde is on mine

So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people, all those lives, where are they now?
With-a loves and hates and passions just like mine
They were born and then they lived and then they died
Seems so unfair, I want to cry

You say, "'Ere thrice the sun done salutation to the dawn"
And you claim these words as your own
But I've read well and I've heard them said
A hundred times, maybe less, maybe more

If you must write prose and poems the words you use should be your own
Don't plagiarize or take on loan
'Cause there's always someone, somewhere with a big nose, who knows
And who trips you up and laughs when you fall
Who'll trip you up and laugh when you fall

You say, "'Ere long done do does did"
Words which could only be your own
And then produce the text from whence was ripped
Some dizzy whore, 1804

A dreaded sunny day, so let's go where we're happy
And I meet you at the cemetery gates
Oh, Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day, so let's go where we're wanted
And I meet you at the cemetery gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side, but you lose
'Cause whale blubber Wilde is on mine (sugar)


Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery, edited by davida, overthewall

Cemetry Gates Lyrics as written by Johnny Marr Steven Morrissey

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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Cemetry Gates song meanings
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    General Comment

    It's an intelligent provocation. The narrator blames the "you" for stealing words. "Ere thrice the sun hath done salution to the dawn" is a reformulation of Shakespeare's words in Richard III, which Shakespeare took from the Bible (and reformulated them). Third time those words were said now. And they contain a cloudy future of bad luck (Jesus, Richard III). And now that "you" says em again and STOLE the words! Hmmm why are they so wanted on the cemetary, a deserted place? Unlucky destiny for the "you"? The narrator obviously can't bear to see words stolen but here's the provocation: he stole the words for this song from "The man who came to dinner". Typical Morrissey theme, hating everyone for things he does himself. Obsession with literature, hating people when they pick it up and ruin it, but wanting to show off yourself as well. The fact that the narrator is on Wilde's side, emphasises that this is provocative literature.

    Duffoon January 17, 2009   Link

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