Curioser and Curioser: Literary Parallels

THE CURE/RIMBAUD/POE/SEUSS
LYRICAL/POETIC PARALLELS



ARTHUR RIMBAUD: SELECTED LINES

“The wolves howl back from the violet forest: and on the horizon the sky is hell-red”

“You will close your eyes, so as not to see through the glass, the evening shadows pulling faces”

“a thousand dreams burn softly inside of me”

“oh! how I wish i were laid among the Dead who are drenched in the waters of the night!”

“I was full young, and Christ tainted my breath”

“I have dreamed of the green night of the dazzled snows, the kiss rising slowly to the eyes of the seas.”

“Ecstasy, nightmare, sleep in a nest of flames.”

“...behold that it ends with angels of fire and ice”

“Afterwards, a ballet of well-known seas and nights...”

(From the books Saison en Enfer and Les Illuminations)

EDGAR ALLAN POE: SELECTED STANZAS



Dim vales - and shadowy floods -
and cloudy-looking woods,
Whose forms we can’t discover
For the tears that drip all over:
Huge moons there wax or wane -
again--again--again”

(From “Fairy-Land”)

At midnight, in the month of June
I stand beneath the mystic moon.
An opiate vapor, dewy, dim
Exhales from out her golden rim
And softly dripping, drop by drop
Upon the quite mountaintop
Steals drowsily and musically
Into the universal valley.

(From “The Sleeper”)

The angles, not half so happy in Heaven,
went envying her and me-
Yes! That was the reason (as all men know,
In the kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud
chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

(From “Annabel Lee”)

DR. SEUSS: SCATTERED LINES



Yes, some are red. And some are blue.
Some are old. And some are new.

Some are sad. And some are glad.

And some are very very bad.

We see them come.
We see them go.
Some are fast.
And some are slow.
Some are high.
And some are low.

(From One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish)

There are so many Thinks
That a Thinker can think!

Think of Light.
Think of Bright.
Think of Stairs
in the Night.

Oh the thinks you can think up if only you try!

(From The Thinks You Can Think!)




ROBERT SMITH: SCATTERED LYRICS

I drown at night in your house
pretending to swim

(From “In Your House”)

Sleeping children in their blue soft rooms
still dream

(From “Primary”)

Rape me like a child
christened in blood
painted like an unknown saint

(From “Faith”)

Scream
As she tries to push him over
Helpless and sick
With teeth of madness
Jump jump dance and sing
Sideways across the desert
A charcoal face
Bites my hand
Time is sweet
Derange and disengage everything

(From “A Short Term Effect”)

Catching haloes on the moon
gives my hands the shapes of angels

(From “The Hanging Garden”)

And dust on the lips of a vision of hell
I laughed in the mirror for the first time in a year

(From “The Figurehead”)

Give me your eyes
that I might see the blind man kissing my hands
The sun is humming
my head turns to dust as he plays on his knees

(From “A Strange Day”)

I was cold as I mouthed the words
and crawled across the mirror

Ice in my eyes
and eyes like ice don’t move
screaming at the moon
another past time
your name
like ice in my heart

(From “Cold”)


An image of the queen
echoes round the sweating bed
sour yellow sounds inside my head

Pushing my life through your open eyes

(From “Pornography”)


I called you after midnight
Then ran until I burst
I passed the howling woman
and stood outside your door

I kissed you in the water
and made your dry lips sing
I saw you look like a Japanese baby
In an instant I remembered everything

(From “The Walk”)

The sky coloured perfect
As the man slipped away
Waving with a last vanilla smile...

(From “Lament”)

But we slept all night in the virgin's bed
And dreamed of death
And breathed like sick dogs

(From “Shake Dog Shake”)

Shapes in the drink like Christ
Cracks in the pale blue wall

Flowers in your mouth and the same dry song
The routine from laughter land
Sixteen white legs and a row of teeth
They watch you in secrecy

(From “Piggy in the Mirror”)

She flies outside this cage
Singing girlmad words
I keep her dark thoughts deep inside
As black as stone

(From “Birdmad Girl”)

Get away from me
Leave me alone
Like the pig on the stairs
Hanging
In a groovy purple shirt

Slit the cats like cheese
Then eat the sweet sticky things

Blood thick swimming round your feet
As you're choking
Choking
Choking on the fleshy words

(From “Give Me It”)

As stiff as toys
And tall as men
And swaying like the wind torn trees
She talked about the empty world
With eyes like poisoned birds

(From “The Empty World”)

A nightmare of you
Of death in the pool
I see no further now than this dream
The trembling hands of the trembling man
Hold my mouth
To hold in a scream

I am paralysed by the Blood of Christ
Though it clouds my eyes
I can never stop

(From “Kyoto Song”)

If only tonight we could sleep
In a bed made of flowers
If only tonight we could fall
In a deathless spell
If only tonight we could slide
Into deep black water
And breathe
And breathe...

Then an angel would come
With burning eyes like stars
And bury us deep
In his velvet arms

And the rain would cry
As our faces slipped away
And the rain would cry

(“If Only Tonight We Could Sleep”)

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You're just like a dream...

I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone
Alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me

(From “Just Like Heaven”)

I found you
In a chain of flowers
Sleeping like a marble girl
Sleeping in another world...

(From “Chain of Flowers”)

And in my dreams I was a child
Flowers in my mouth and in my eyes
And I was floating through the colours of a sky
Up to the stars and angels

Up up up to heaven
Up up up forever
Up up up to heaven
Up up up forever

(From “To the Sky”)

On candystripe legs the spiderman comes
Softly through the shadow of the evening sun
Stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead
Looking for the victim shivering in bed
Searching out fear in the gathering gloom

(From “Lullaby”)

Remembering
You standing quiet in the rain
As I ran to your heart to be near
And we kissed as the sky fell in
Holding you close
How I always held close in your fear
Remembering
You running soft through the night
You were bigger and brighter and wider than snow
And screamed at the make-believe
Screamed at the sky
And you finally found all your courage
To let it all go

Remembering
You fallen into my arms
Crying for the death of your heart
You were stone white
So delicate
Lost in the cold
You were always so lost in the dark
Remembering
You how you used to be
Slow drowned
You were angels
So much more than everything

(From “Pictures of You”)

Dropping through sky
Through the glass of the roof
Through the roof of your mouth
Through the mouth of your eye
Through the eye of the needle
It's easier for me to get closer to heaven
Than ever feel whole again

(From “Disintegration”)

As I spitting splitting blood red
Breaking windows in my heart
And the past is taunting
Fear of ghosts
Is forcing me apart

(From “Fear of Ghosts”)

Hopelessly drift
In the eyes of the ghost again
Down on my knees
And my hands in the air again
Pushing my face in the memory of you again

(From “Untitled”)

When I see you sticky as lips
As licky as trips
I can't lick that far
But when you pout
The way you shout out loud
It makes me want to start
And when I see you happy as a girl
That swims in a world of magic show
It makes me bite my fingers through
To think I could've let you go

And when I see you kitten as a cat
Yeah as smitten as that
I can't get that small
Tthe way you fur
The how you purr
It makes me want to paw you all
And when I see you happy as a girl
That lives in a world of make-believe
It makes me pull my hair all out
To think I could've let you leave

(From “High”)

And so we watch the sun come up
From the edge of the deep green sea
And she listens like her head's on fire

I've never been so
Colourfully-see-through-head before
I've never been so
Wonderfully-me-you-want-some-more

(From “The Edge of the Deep Green Sea”)

I don't care if Mondays black
Tuesday Wednesday heart attack
Thursday never looking back
It's Friday I'm in love

(From “Friday I’m in Love”)

Remember how it used to be
When the stars would fill the sky
Remember how we used to dream
Those nights would never end
Those nights would never end

(From “To Wish Impossible Things”)

I lift my lips from kissing you
To kiss the sky
Cloud soft and blue
And slow the sun melts down
Into your golden words for me

(From “This Twilight Garden”)

"Oh don't talk of love" the shadows purr
Murmuring me away from you
"Don't talk of worlds that never were
The end is all that's ever true
There's nothing you can ever say
Nothing you can ever do... "
Still every night I burn
Every night I scream your name


But every night I burn
Every night I call your name
Every night I burn
Every night I fall again
Every night I burn
Scream the animal scream
Every night I burn
Dream the crow black dream

(From “Burn”)


THAT WAS THE JUPITER CRASH
DRAWN TOO CLOSE AND GONE IN A FLASH
JUST A FEW BRUISES IN THE REGION OF THE SPLASH...

SHE LEFT TO THE SOUND OF THE SEA
SHE JUST DRIFTED AWAY FROM ME
SO MUCH FOR GRAVITY...

(From “Jupiter Crash”)


THERE'S A THIN WHITE COLD NEW MOON AND THE SNOW IS COMING DOWN
AND THE NEON BRIGHT TOKYO LIGHTS FLICKER THROUGH THE CROWD
I'VE BEEN DRIFTING AROUND FOR HOURS AND I'M LOST AND I'M TIRED
WHEN A WHISPER IN MY EAR INSATIABLE BREATHES
"WHY DON'T YOU FOLLOW ME INSIDE?... "

(From “Watching Me Fall”)


NOTHING I AM
NOTHING I DREAM
NOTHING IS NEW
NOTHING I THINK OR BELIEVE IN OR SAY
NOTHING IS TRUE

(From “The Last Day of Summer”)

"I SAID I LOVE YOU" I SAID... YOU DIDN'T SAY A WORD
JUST HELD YOUR HANDS TO YOUR SHINING EYES
AND I WATCHED AS THE TEARS RAN THROUGH YOUR FINGERS
HELD YOUR HANDS TO YOUR SHINING EYES AND CRIED...

(From “There is No If”)

"THIS DREAM NEVER ENDS" YOU SAID
"THIS FEELING NEVER GOES
THE TIME WILL NEVER COME TO SLIP AWAY"
"THIS WAVE NEVER BREAKS" YOU SAID
"THIS SUN NEVER SETS AGAIN
THESE FLOWERS WILL NEVER FADE"
"THIS WORLD NEVER STOPS" YOU SAID
"THIS WONDER NEVER LEAVES
THE TIME WILL NEVER COME TO SAY GOODBYE"
"THIS TIDE NEVER TURNS" YOU SAID
"THIS NIGHT NEVER FALLS AGAIN”

(From “Bloodflowers”)

BUT HOW MANY TIMES CAN I WALK AWAY
AND WISH "IF ONLY... "
HOW MANY TIMES CAN I TALK THIS WAY
AND WISH "IF ONLY... "
KEEP ON MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE
KEEP ON ACHING THE SAME HEARTBREAK

(From “Cut Here”)

I had to think to breathe
my heart burst
we moved in silence really slowly away from the world
as we drove a strange silence
that moment
nothing will ever be the same
nothing will ever be the same
nothing will ever be the same

In his eyes as we turn no eternity of life
In his eyes as we turn no infinity of why
In his eyes as we turn no beautiful goodbye

(From “This Morning”)


Say it's the same sun spinning in the same sky
Say it's the same stars streaming in the same night
Tell me it's the same world whirling through the same space
Tell me it's the same time tripping through the same day
Oh tell me it's the same boy burning in the same bed
Tell me it's the same blood breaking in the same head
Say it's the same taste taking down the same kiss

But the sun is cold - the sky is wrong
The stars are black - the night is gone
The world is still - the space is stopped
The time is out - the day is dropped

(From “Labyrinth”)