Erthe Upon Erthe

It's a bit easier to understand the song with the lyrics translated into modern English:

Earth has been miraculously created out of earth Earth has attained a high position on earth out of nothing Earth has fixed all his thoughts On trying to raise earth to heaven on earth

Earth wants to be an earthly king But earth doesn't have a clue how on earth to go about it When earth breeds earth and brings his reward home Earth and earth will have to bid each other a tragic farewell

Remember, o man, that you are ashes And into ashes you will return

Earth conquers castles and towers on earth Then says earth to the earth, "All of this belongs to us" When earth has built up his defences on earth That is when earth will really get his come-uppance from earth

Remember, o man, that you are ashes And into ashes you will return

Earth is piled up on earth like dirt on dirt He who swans around the earth, glittering like gold As though earth won't really have to return to earth Will soon find earth indeed becoming earth again, no matter how much he tries to fight it

I really wonder why earth loves earth Or why earth should toil and work for earth's sake Because when earth is brought to the earth of his grave Earth back in the earth will stink to high heaven

Remember, o man, that you are ashes And into ashes you will return

Remember, o man, that you are ashes And into ashes you will return

The fascinating thing about this song is the play on words and the juxtaposition of the song itself with the Ash Wednesday prayer "Remember, O man, that you are ashes and into ashed you will return."

The word "earth" sometimes refers to the dirt or the planet and sometimes to a man, who is made out of dirt (or ashes.) It talks about how the earth-man tries to conquer the entire Earth, that from which he was made. And when he does, he dies. The Earth he conquered conquers him and he stinks to high heaven.

Presumably, the earth-man should have fixed his mind not on trying to raise Earth to heaven, but his thoughts and soul to heaven, although that is not stated in the song. Or, perhaps it just means, "You're going to die anyway, so why try to do anything important." It reminds me of another poem about Erthe and the poem "Ozymandias" which I will post here:

Erþe toc of erþe erþe wyþ woh
Erþe oþer erþe to þe erþe droh
Erþe leyde erþe in erþene þroh
þo heuede erþe of erþe erþe ynoh

This translates, roughly, to:

Earth took earth from earth with woe,
earth dragged other earth to the earth;
earth put earth into an earthen chest.
Then earth had enough earth from earth.

Of 'that which is of the earth' [a person] being taken from the earth [the world of men] and buried in the earth [in a grave]

Ozymandias:

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains: round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.