Upon This Earth

Released at September 13, 1987

Release date:

September 13, 1987

Virgin Records (Ltd) 1987

Length:

6:22

Status:

Official

Publisher:

Opium (Arts)

Lyrics

(Voice of J. G. Bennet)

Looking by chance in at the open window
I saw my own self seated in his chair
With gaze abstracted, furrowed forehead,
Unkempt hair.

I thought that I had suddenly come to die,
That to a cold corpse this was my farewell,
Until the pen moved slowly upon paper
And tears fell.

He had written a name, yours, in printed letters
One word on which bemusedly to pore
No protest, no desire, your naked name,
Nothing more

Would it be tomorrow, would it be next year?
But the vision was not false, this much I knew
And I turned angrily from the open window
Agaist at you.

Why never a warning, either by speech or look,
That the love you cruelly gave me could not last?
Already it was too late: the bait swallowed,
The hook fast

Video

Upon This Earth contains a reading of the Robert Graves poem The Foreboding which can be found in any selected edition of the poetry or in his collected poems (cassell p,95). The reading is by Robert himself and is taken from an album of his readings on a label called Argo, long since passed.

Solo guitar: Robert Fripp
Written by: David Sylvian, Robert Fripp

Gallery