Black Aggie Lyrics

Monument of grief carven in eternal stone
Wordless image of all-consuming despair
Angel of sadness robed in folded wings
Suicide immortalized in hewn granite

Vain, proud Frenchman, hero of countless wars
Came over the sea, a hunter of the alps
Took twelve bullets for the army of the north
Swaggered with a rattle of accumulated lead

The years carried ever on and on
General Agnus found himself a loving wife
Decades of prosperity at a newspaper's helm
The time had come to see to the family plot

A good patch of land in Druid Ridge
Restful bed for weary bones

No plain stone would do for a legacy like his
In his search, he found the embodiment of grief
Dead-eyed stare draped in the shadow of anguish
Face of the grief angel haunted every waking thought

Felix had himself a copy made
Clandestine casting in the black of night

Fought tooth and nail to keep his ill-got prize
Carved in dismal grey, spartan to the bone
An inscription below bore the name "Agnus"
The grave site reeked of a mind fixed on death

Annie passed in '22
Death took Agnus in '25
Buried at the feet
Of that dead-eyed effigy of gloom

Inoccuous grey under the brightness of the sun
Under the light of the moon, an impenetrable black
As the bells chime midnight, its eyes glow red
Calling for the spirits of the madness-stricken dead
Pilgrims gathered 'round, but were blinded by her eyes
No living thing could grow where Black Aggie cast her gaze
The stare of death took life unborn and life mature alike
Boundless wellspring of mania, delirium and death

Long years passed and the legends grew
She was defiled, defaced and disfigured
Finally moved to where she could do no harm
Until grief's gaze lands on another hapless soul