Lou Reed - A Wild Being From Birth lyrics

Rowena: A wild being from birth My spirit spurns control Wondering the wide earth searching for my soul While all the world is chiding In visions of the dark night I have had a waking dream A holy dream A holy dream A waking dream of life and light That cheered me as a lovely beam A lonely spirit guiding With a ray turned back upon the past While I aghast Sit motionless through the misty night Dimly peering at what once shone bright Peeking wariy at what shone afar What could there be more purely bright In Truth's day-star? Poe: In the consideration of the faculties And impulses of the human soul In consideration of our arrogance Our radical, primitive, irreducible arrogance of reason We have all overlooked the propensity We saw no need for it The paradoxical something which we may call perverseness A mobile without motive Through its promptings, we act without comprehensible object Induction would have brought phrenology to admit this We act for the reason we should not For certain minds this is absolutely irresistible The conviction of the wrong or impolicy of an action Is often the unconquerable force It is a primitive impulse Elementary The overwhelming tendency to do Wrong for the wrong's sake This impels us to its persecutions Oh holy dream We persist in acts Because we feel that we should not persist in them This is the combativeness of phrenology Rowena: We have a task before us which must be speedily performed We know it will be ruinous to delay Trumpet-tongued, the important crisis of our life calls We glow Poe: We are consumed with eagerness to commence work Yet a shadow flits across the brain The impulse increases to a wish The wish to a desire The desire to uncontrollable longing And the longing in defiance of all consequences is indulged We put off all until tomorrow Rowena: We tremble with the violence of the conflict within us The definite with the indefinite The substance with the shadow There is no answer except that we feel perverse The shadow prevails Our energy returns We will commit now We will labor now Oh holiest of dreams But it is too late We stand upon the brink of the precipice Poe: We grow sick and dizzy We go to shrink from danger but instead we approach it We are intoxicated by the mere idea Of a fall from such a great height This fall, this rushing annihilation For the very reason It contains the most loathsome and ghastly images Of d**h and suffering For this reason do we now most impetuously desire it There is no pa**ion in nature So demonic as the pa**ion of him who Shuddering upon the edge, meditates a plunge We will these actions merely Because we feel that we should not Having realized this, I swoon It is the spirit of the perverse The idea of a poison candle struck my fancy And I procured one for my victim I will not vex you with impertinent details But suffice it to say the verdict was "d**h by the visitation of God" Rowena: All went well for me Poe: All went well for me Rowena: His estate inherited I reveled in absolute security I would never be found out I was safe I was safe If I did not prove fool enough to make open confession Poe: If I did not prove fool enough to make public confession No sooner had I uttered those words Than I felt an icy chill creep into my heart I made a strong effort To shake off this nightmare of the soul I laughed I whistled I walked and then walked faster I thought I saw a formless shape approaching me from behind And then I ran I pushed and shoved blindly I thought I left a hand upon my throat No mortal hand I screamed And then clearly, clearly I enunciated pregnant sentences That consigned me to the hangman and the hell The fullest judicial conviction Today I wear chains but tomorrow I shall be fetterless But where? Oh holy dream Oh beam of light I fall prostrate with excitement this holy night