C F C
Now the Swan it floated on the English river
C F C
Ah the Rose of High Romance it opened wide
E Am F/C
A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
G F C
and the judges watched us from the other side
C F C
I told my mother Mother I must leave you
C F C
preserve my room but do not shed a tear
E Am F/C
Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
G F C
it was half my fault and half the atmosphere
C F C
But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
C F C
and the Swan I tempted with a sense of shame
E Am F/C
She said at last I was her finest lover
G F C
and if she withered I would be to blame
C F C
The judges said you missed it by a fraction
C F C
rise up and brace your troops for the attack
E Am F/C
Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action
G F C
Oh see the men of action falling back
C F C
But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment
C F C
I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still
E Am F/C
My falsity had stung me like a hornet
G F C
The poison sank and it paralysed my will
C F C
I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers
C F C
that they had been deserted from above
E Am F/C
So on battlefields from here to Barcelona
G F C
I'm listed with the enemies of love
C F C
And long ago she said I must be leaving,
C F C
Ah but keep my body here to lie upon
E Am F/C
You can move it up and down and when I'm sleeping
G F C
Run some wire through that Rose and wind the Swan
C F C
So daily I renew my idle duty
C F C
I touch her here and there, I know my place
E Am F/C
I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty
G F C
and people call me traitor to my face
