Usher, Part 1 Lyrics

GELSEY (Lady Usher) (spoken)
I suffer from a family evil
I am a slave to terror

I have a morbid acuteness of the senses
I only eat the most insipid food
Only wear garments of certain textures
The odors of flowers are oppressive
My eyes are tortured by faint light;

And there are only certain peculiar sounds,
Like those from stringed instruments
Which do not inspire me with horror.

I dread the future
My little girl is dying

DAVE (Edgar) (sung)
On a dull, dark, and soundless day,
In the autumn of 1873,
My wife and I sat at the bed of our only daughter, Roxie

DAVE & GELSEY
The bleak walls
The decaying trees
The utter depression of the soul
The bitter ghost of everyday life
The icy sinking of the heart

For seventeen years
Our Roxie had danced

DAVE
So beautiful

GELSEY
Danced on the edge of a star

DAVE & GELSEY
But now, following the loss of her own child,
A sickness had taken over

GELSEY
Her child was stolen
And she blames herself
She is wasting away
Her liquid eyes
Her thin lips
Her pale skin

DAVE & GELSEY
Her spider web hair
Floating in front of her face

BRITTAIN (Roxie)
Little girl little girl
Where's my little girl
Where's my starchild?

DAVE
The father was long gone
An astronomer of some renown

BRITTAIN
Why did you leave me?
Why did you disappear?

GELSEY
I bury my face in my hands

DAVE
Astonishment and dread
In the house of Usher