Rush Lyrics

Album: Different Stages

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Lyrics

I. Prelude

When our weary world was young

The struggle of the ancients first began.

The gods of Love and Reason

Sought alone to rule the fate of Man.

They battled through the ages,

But still neither force would yield.

The people were divided,

Every soul a battlefield.

II. Apollo/Dionysus

Apollo: Bringer of Wisdom

"I bring truth and understanding,

I bring wit and wisdom fair,

Precious gifts beyond compare.

We can build a world of wonder,

I can make you all aware.

I will find you food and shelter,

Show you fire to keep you warm

Through the endless winter storm.

You can live in grace and comfort

In the world that you transform."

The people were delighted

Coming forth to claim their prize

They ran to build their cities

And converse among the wise.

But one day the streets fell silent,

Yet they knew not what was wrong.

The urge to build these fine things

Seemed not to be so strong.

The wise men were consulted,

And the Bridge of Death was crossed

In quest of Dionysus

To find out what they had lost.

Dionysus: Bringer of Love

"I bring love to give you solace

In the darkness of the night,

In the Heart's eternal light.

You need only trust your feelings;

Only love can steer you right.

I bring laughter, I bring music,

I bring joy and I bring tears.

I will soothe your primal fears.

Throw off those chains of reason

And your prison disappears."

The cities were abandoned,

And the forests echoed song.

They danced and lived as brothers;

They knew love could not be wrong.

Food and wine they had aplenty

And they slept beneath the stars.

The people were contented

And the gods watched from afar.

But the winter fell upon them

And it caught them unprepared,

Bringing wolves and cold starvation,

And the hearts of men despaired.

III. Armageddon: The Battle of Heart and Mind

The universe divided

As the Heart and Mind collided,

With the people left unguided

For so many troubled years.

In a cloud of doubts and fears,

Their world was torn asunder into hollow

Hemispheres.

Some fought themselves, some fought each other,

Most just followed one another

Lost and aimless like their brothers

For their hearts were so unclear

And the truth could not appear

Their spirits were divided into blinded

Hemispheres.

Some who did not fight

Brought tales of old to light.

"My Rocinante sailed by night

On her final flight."

To the heart of Cygnus' fearsome force

We set our course

Spiralled through that timeless space

To this immortal place.

IV. Cygnus: Bringer of Balance

I have memory and awareness,

But I have no shape or form.

As a disembodied spirit,

I am dead and yet unborn.

I have passed into Olympus

As was told in tales of old,

To the city of Immortals,

Marble white and purest gold...

I see the gods in battle rage on high...

Thunderbolts across the sky...

I cannot move, I cannot hide...

I feel a silent scream begin inside...

Then all at once the chaos ceased

A stillness fell, a sudden peace

The warriors felt my silent cry

And stayed their struggle, mystified.

Apollo was atonished;

Dionysus thought me mad.

But they heard my story further

And they wondered, and were sad.

Looking down from Olympus

On a world of doubt and fear,

Its surface splintered

Into sorry Hemispheres.

They sat a while in silence,

Then they turned at last to me:

"We will call you Cygnus,

The god of Balance you shall be."

V.The Sphere: A Kind of Dream

We can walk our road together

If our goals are all the same.

We can run alone and free

If we pursue a different aim.

Let the Truth of Love be lighted,

Let the Love of Truth shine clear. Sensibility,

Armed with sense and liberty,

With the Heart and Mind united in a single 

Perfect 

Sphere.