Ariel

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Mickey Hart

Hunter notes in "Box Of Rain" that he wrote this in 1964, but did not record it until ten years later, when Mickey Hart independently created a musical arrangement that brought these lyrics to mind.

The silver fox has shed its tail now
Left it by the frozen water
The leaves were drifting down
Now they are gone, gone, gone

I draw milady's carriage
Ever since her horse retired
I don't think I can pull much longer
I've never been this tired before

Up jump the black chain dancers
Empty hands that grasp for answers
Fasten on to one another - fly
Fly, fly, fly away

Ariel is sweetly singing
Wait you, just one more season
You're not blind, you only hide your
Eyes within your hands
Within your hands

Ariel - Ariel
Ariel - Ariel

There is no night like this night
Where candles burn through daylight
Minds restrained by golden tethers fade
Fade, fade, fade away

The sun objects with smiling sadness
Roman highways laced with diamonds
Sink like grave Atlantis into
Dreams of other days - they fade away

Monuments to crippled madness
Puppets dangle in the treetops
The cold magician carves his voice in stone
Then flies away - then flies away

Ariel sings overhead
Deaf men mouth the words she's said
But they don't hear the songs she's singing now
Oh no - not now

Ariel - Ariel
Ariel - Ariel

As wild and unholy place
As any place I've ever been
You can knock and knock and knock
No one comes to let you in - no one comes

As solid and as fine a floor
As any floor I've walked upon
Broke beneath my footsteps
I've got no place left to stand
Not any more

Loves to love and not to chain
Some are lost but some remain
Nothing can replace the light
That once has died - turned to night
No one can

If I had the sense to know
Which things count and which are show
I'd hold my fate within my hands
Instead of all these chains and bands
Yes I would

Ariel - Ariel
Ariel - Ariel