When She Comes Lyrics - Van Der Graaf Generator

(Hammill) 

Slow motion in the quiet of the room; 

so potent is the smell of her perfume 

that you think she's eternal, 

that you think she is everything... 

but no-one knows what she is. 

Repentance for all you should have said; 

her entrance seems to raise you from the dead 

and you think she's really with you, 

and you think that she'll always stay, 

always ready to forgive you, 

always ready to grant you her mercy 

but in her own way. 

When she comes, she'll be a stranger; 

struck dumb, you'll try to protest 

as the drum beats out the danger... 

too late, you should have noticed 

that the lady with the skin so white, 

like something out of Blake or Burne-Jones 

always blocked out the light 

and shadowed all you owned. 

Still you think she's forever, 

yesterday and tomorrow... 

but no-one knows where she is. 

Still you swear that you can win her 

and your prayer is that she'll want you; 

aware - once a saint, now you're a sinner 

and your sins are going to haunt you 

when the lady with her skin so white 

like something out of Edgar Allan Poe 

holds your hand so very tight 

and you hope that she'll never let go. 

Easy targets, easy crosswords, easy life: 

these key margins leave you balanced on the knife, 

bleeding darkly. 

In the end it all comes down to sleazy bargains. 

That hidden key - you tried so hard to find it, 

all you can conceive is the effort to be worthy; 

even now you need to be reminded 

that La Belle Dame is without mercy. 

The lady with her skin so white - 

you never did quite catch her name - 

now she holds you in the night 

and she'll never let go again, 

she'll never let go again.