Wise After the Event - Anthony Phillips

Four thousand monks in a maelstrom

All crying out for release

Three cheers for old Mother Hailsham

She’s sticking to her beliefs

A hundred ships took to the high seas

Intent on sailing the world

They might have known that a rainy sky

Would scatter swine before pearls

One by One, the Centaur is breaking its chains

And, after all, we’re blood and flesh and pain

Cover it up high, cover it up low

Cerebus stirring

Finally learning

Lamplighters' torches extinguish

The flames of our fate

Six sturdy Bold held the Tiber

Across the stakes they did swarm

And in a chance he was leaving

Throughout his watch he was warming their guards

I met a man on a spreading kite

Who set his course for the sun

But when I asked what he’d found up there

He said he’d just been for fun

Hour by hour, the Jigsaw is piecing together

In fear and dread, we wait the final act

Gathering up high, gathering up low

See how the earth quakes

Watch as the crust breaks

Beating the air as the hot wind

Comes blowing my way

A million men marched on Memphis

To pay respect to their King

But when they came to Fort Lauderville

They found they all had to sing — So we’re

Getting so much wiser, it’s so much fun