Mask Of Anarchy

(album: BATS - 2023)

Stand ye calm and resolute
Like a forest close and mute
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war

And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there
Slash and stab, maim and hew
What they like, let them do
Folded arms and steady eyes
Little fear, and less surprise
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away

Rise like lions after slumber
We are the many, they are few
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Never let them fall on you
We are the many, they are few
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Never let them fall on you

Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came
And the blood they shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek

And these words shall then become
Like Oppression's thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain
Heard again and again
Rise, like lions after slumber
Unvanquishable in their number
Shaking chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you

Rise like lions after slumber
We are the many, they are few
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Never let them fall on you
We are the many, they are few
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Never let them fall on you

What is freedom? You can tell
That which slavery is too well
For its very name has grown
Into an echo of your own

'Tis to work and have such pay
To keep life from day to day
In your limbs, as in a cell
For the tyrants' use to dwell
Then it is to feel revenge
Fiercely thirsting to exchange
Blood for blood, and wrong for wrong
Do not thus when ye are strong

Rise like lions after slumber
We are the many, they are few
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Never let them fall on you
We are the many, they are few
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Never let them fall on you