The Incredible String Band - The Actor lyrics

The actor leaves the stage with a rose in his hand He settles in the back seat his thoughts are like fine sand Driven through the rain swept streets casting a melancholy stare Upon two enraptured loves kissing without a care The dreams of an actor spill slowly by Like the thoughts of a dreamer or the casting of a die Talking to gay fellows of the follies on which they perch He saw a lovely lady beneath the arches of a church Cigarettes in the airless twenties An estate well filled with dust In the evening reading Swinburne Eating mightily with some false lust But a kiss was what we found On damp but friendly ground The lady wore no makeup but she stood like a swan Thin body of a dancer her dress was quietly torn Her eyes searched his distant heart that lingered in the ram But his friends caught his iron gaze and carried it away again Broken hearted in the loveless twenties Where a wink was like an embrace Making love on blue fridays From across some foggy space But a kiss was what we found On damp but friendly ground Tea was like a mirror a reflection never there His thoughts upon that ring of love that burned upon her stare Her eyes her lips her chin her grace the rain upon her hair Thus it gripped his white gloved heart can anyone be so fair Untied in the breezy twenties With a hand held in my arms Bearing my heart to the hallowed spires Of this quiet and ancient land For a kiss was what we found On damp but friendly ground