The Actor Lyrics - Incredible String Band

The actor leaves the stage with a rose in his hand 

He settles in the back seat his thoughts are like fine sand 

Driven through the rain swept streets casting a melancholy stare 

Upon two enraptured loves kissing without a care 

The dreams of an actor spill slowly by 

Like the thoughts of a dreamer or the casting of a die 

Talking to gay fellows of the follies on which they perch 

He saw a lovely lady beneath the arches of a church 

Cigarettes in the airless twenties 

An estate well filled with dust 

In the evening reading Swinburne 

Eating mightily with some false lust 

But a kiss was what we found 

On damp but friendly ground 

The lady wore no makeup but she stood like a swan 

Thin body of a dancer her dress was quietly torn 

Her eyes searched his distant heart that lingered in the ram 

But his friends caught his iron gaze and carried it away again 

Broken hearted in the loveless twenties 

Where a wink was like an embrace 

Making love on blue Fridays 

From across some foggy space 

But a kiss was what we found 

On damp but friendly ground 

Tea was like a mirror a reflection never there 

His thoughts upon that ring of love that burned upon her stare 

Her eyes her lips her chin her grace the rain upon her hair 

Thus it gripped his white gloved heart can anyone be so fair 

Untied in the breezy twenties 

With a hand held in my arms 

Bearing my heart to the hallowed spires 

Of this quiet and ancient land 

For a kiss was what we found 

On damp but friendly ground