The Smiths: Cemetry Gates

Album: The Queen Is Dead (1986)
Produced by Morrissey and Johnny Marr
Label: Rough Trade Records

Track 5: Cemetry Gates
Words by Morrissey
Music by Johnny Marr


Video: The Smiths - Cemetry Gates
Wolverhampton 1986


Lyrics: The Smiths - Cemetry Gates

A dreaded sunny day
so I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
a dreaded sunny day
so I meet you at the cemetry 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 loves, and hates
and passions just like mine
they were born
and then they lived
and then they died
which seems so unfair
and I want to cry
You say: "ere thrice the sun done
salutation to the dawn"
and you claim these words as your own
but Im well-read, have heard them said
a hundred times (maybe less, maybe more)
if you must write prose/poems
the words you use should be your own
dont plagiarise or take "on loan"
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
you 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 cemetry gates
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 cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
but you lose
because Wilde is on mine.