ATAVISM
O, have you ever heard the gutter’s call?E’er felt the strange attraction of the sewer?Or ceded to the urge from underneath,To wallow in the mire, to plunge, to sinkInto the frightful abyss of perdition?Were you e’er tempted from some siren’s lips,To cull the bliss, you know, is venomous?Or did you feel the satanic desire,To soil and mutilate the sacred imageOf that ideal you worshiped all your life?It is the atavistic voice that’s waking,The dormant beast in you. Beware! Beware!
O, have you ever heard the gutter’s call?E’er felt the strange attraction of the sewer?Or ceded to the urge from underneath,To wallow in the mire, to plunge, to sinkInto the frightful abyss of perdition?Were you e’er tempted from some siren’s lips,To cull the bliss, you know, is venomous?Or did you feel the satanic desire,To soil and mutilate the sacred imageOf that ideal you worshiped all your life?It is the atavistic voice that’s waking,The dormant beast in you. Beware! Beware!
O, have you ever heard the gutter’s call?E’er felt the strange attraction of the sewer?Or ceded to the urge from underneath,To wallow in the mire, to plunge, to sinkInto the frightful abyss of perdition?Were you e’er tempted from some siren’s lips,To cull the bliss, you know, is venomous?Or did you feel the satanic desire,To soil and mutilate the sacred imageOf that ideal you worshiped all your life?It is the atavistic voice that’s waking,The dormant beast in you. Beware! Beware!
O, have you ever heard the gutter’s call?
E’er felt the strange attraction of the sewer?
Or ceded to the urge from underneath,
To wallow in the mire, to plunge, to sink
Into the frightful abyss of perdition?
Were you e’er tempted from some siren’s lips,
To cull the bliss, you know, is venomous?
Or did you feel the satanic desire,
To soil and mutilate the sacred image
Of that ideal you worshiped all your life?
It is the atavistic voice that’s waking,
The dormant beast in you. Beware! Beware!