Songs From The Scarlet Letter

Chorus

One law for the sea we crossed.One law for the forest dark.One law for the savage heart.One law for the babe in arms.

One law for the fallen world.One law for eternity.One law for the woman's child.One law, our community.

Save us from the Evil One.Save us till all time has run.Save us! Save us!

Winter from the world is gone.God's light on the town has shone.Save us! Save us!

Passionate loving One,give us thy blessed Son.Save us! Save us!

One law for the sea we crossed.One law for the forest dark.One law for the savage heart.One law for the babe in arms.

Winter from the world has gone.Somewhere with us there is one

as sinful as Hester Prynne.Save him. Save him.

One law. One law. One law. One.One law. One law. One law. One.

Chillingworth's Lament

Now truly know me, Hester Prynne.My eyes grown dim from candlelight,an aging man, a mindful man,too long a student of the night.

When I was young I dreamt of love,the fond endearments of the fleshas lovers fit like hand and glove,but now my heart is burnt to ash.

I was misshapen all my life—this crooked back, this lurching gait—but hoped the scientific knifecould carve a more illustrious fate.

Perhaps some pretty girl would seethe beauty of my mind. None did.This physical deformity—my body—it was better hid.

You kindled life in me, but nowI am a stranger to us both.It is his name that I must knowand I will learn it, by my troth.

Hester's Lullaby

By medicine or alchemy,sleep on, my child, sleep on.A daughter of adultery,adored, my child, sleep on.

You are the pearl beyond all price.Sleep on, my love, sleep on.More worthy than all sacrifice,sleep on, my Pearl, sleep on.

I'll earn our bread by handiwork,my skilled embroidery,and you shall grow, the daughter ofa love kept secretly.

Our prison door thrown open, love,we shall step into light,and though I bear the letter hereover my breaking heart,

nothing will come to harm you, Pearl,as long as I'm alive.This lullaby I sing to you.May you live long and thrive.

You are my Pearl beyond all price.Sleep on, my love, sleep on.More worthy than all sacrifice,sleep on, my Pearl, sleep on.

Choral Interlude: Time Passing

Let years accumulate like trees,the drifting snows, the darkening wood.As springtime blows across the seawe strive to comprehend the good.

Time is vaster than the earth.Time is larger than our law.Time before all human birthand all we have no image for.

The summers pass, the crops fulfilled,the autumn harvests fill the barns.Winter bows us to Thy willand spring returns us to the farms.

We must devote our lives to God,our safety in community,His secrets never understoodthough years revolve relentlessly.

Let days accumulate like trees,the drifting snows, the darkening wood.As summer blows across the seaWe strive to comprehend the good.

The Witch's Song

Who do you think you are?You hide behind the cloth.You hide behind the book.You cannot travel farbeyond your Master's wrathor leering harlot's look.

The hart walks in the wood,the antler and the branchdisguising what we see.The quail, the breath of wind,all stirrings of this land,remain a mystery.

In rituals at nighta dancing witch's firecasts shadows on the boughs.The Devil seeks a mateto join him in the mire,his miserable spouse.

Out where the spirit flees,where imps and demons crawlover the forest floor,no pilgrim can find peace,a wretched caterwaulhis curse forevermore.

Come to the Devil's fire.Dance in the flames of fleshwhere you and your lover tryst.Who do...