Henry's Songbook

But I'm going home now, I'm going home
My lady's waiting and I'm going home

The music lover will sell his soul
For when he's hungry he's like a fool
The muse is greedy, the muse commands
And the lover answers to her demands

In the darkness she calls for me
Like a tempting siren upon the sea
And like a blind man I follow on
I lose my reason and my sense is gone

When I leave her how she scorns
She's a jealous lover and how she burns
And in the morning she lets me go
I'm her midnight lover, one of many more

Oh mistress music takes everything
She takes my body and she makes me sing
She took my young years, she gave me age
And she left me standing on an empty stage

[1983:] Many musicians' and writers' relationship with the Muse is that of spending a lifetime courting her for what is always a too brief response always with the possibility of rejection. (Notes Allan Taylor, 'Circle Round Again')