The Crane Wife 1, 2 & 3 - The Decemberists

It was a cold night and the snow lay 'round

I pulled my coat tight against the falling down

And the sun was all, and the sun was all down

And the sun was all, and the sun was all down

I am a poor man, I have not wealth nor fame

I have my two hands and a house to my name

And the winter’s so, the winter’s so long

And the winter’s so, the winter’s so long

And all the stars were crashing 'round

As I laid eyes on what I’d found

It was a white crane, it was a helpless thing

Upon a red stain with an arrow in its wing

And it called and cried, it called and cried so

And it called and cried, it called and cried so

And all the stars were crashing 'round

As I laid eyes on what I’d found

My crane wife, my crane wife

My crane wife, my crane wife

And how I helped her and I dressed her wounds

And how I held her beneath the rising moon

And she stood to fly, she stood to fly away

She stood to fly, she stood to fly away

And all the stars were crashing 'round

As I laid eyes on what I’d found

My crane wife, my crane wife

My crane wife, my crane wife

La la, la la la…

PART TWO

My crane wife arrived at my door in the moonlight

All star bright and tongue-tied, I took her in

We were married and bells rang sweet for our wedding

And our bedding was ready, when we fell in

Sound the keening bell and see it’s painted red

Soft as fontanelle, the feathers in the thread

And all I ever meant to do was to keep you

My crane wife, my crane wife, my crane wife

We were poorly, our fortunes fading hourly

And how she avowed me she could bring it back

But I was greedy, I was vain, and I forced her to weaving

On a cold loom in a closed room, with down wove

Sound the keening bell and see it’s painted red

Soft as fontanelle, the feathers in the thread

And all I ever meant to do was to keep you

My crane wife, my crane wife, my crane wife

There’s a bend in the wind and it rakes at my heart

There is blood in the thread and it rakes at my heart

It rakes at my heart, heart, heart, heart

Heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart, my crane wife

PART THREE

And under the boughs unbowed

All clothed in a snowy shroud

She had no heart so hardened

All under the boughs unbowed

Each feather, it fell from skin

Till threadbare as she grew thin

How were my eyes so blinded?

Each feather, it fell from skin

And I will hang my head, hang my head low

And I will hang my head, hang my head low

A gray sky, a bitter sting

A rain cloud, a crane on wing

All out beyond horizon

A gray sky, a bitter sting

And I will hang my head, hang my head low

And I will hang my head, hang my head low

And I will hang my head, hang my head low

And I will hang my head, hang my head low

And I will hang my head, hang my head low

And I will hang my head, hang my head low, low, low