A single by Seraphino Aurelius Belladonna
For I Have Surely Come
A dark ballad in which pestilence speaks as an arriving conqueror: no grievance, no demand for riches, and no gate that can keep it out.
- Release date
The matter at hand
What the song concerns
The opening sounds like the announcement of an invader. Doors are barred, watchmen raise the alarm, and those within are urged to protect their families. Yet this visitor wants neither coin nor crown, and no sword or wall can obstruct it. The arrival of fever, weakness, and a swelling beneath the arm reveals the threat as plague, given a voice of its own.
Behind the composition
About the recording
The song is built around that delayed recognition. Merchant vessels bring ordinary goods into port while carrying an unseen danger; households fall silent one after another, and the wealth and shelter that survive offer no comfort for the people lost. The speaker’s refrain becomes more terrible once its identity is understood.
Seraphino tells this story with the gravity its subject requires. Here his command of ceremony and declaration serves an implacable voice, while the human meaning rests with those trying to protect what they love. The refrain’s warning returns unchanged, but every return carries the knowledge gained in the preceding verse.
The words, as sung
Lyrics
Bar fast the doors and shutter tight
Put every lamp to none
Hide well thy wives and children all
For I, at last, have come
Let bells be rung from every tower
Let watchmen sound alarm
By dawn thy streets shall know me well
And none shall sleep from harm
I ask no leave, I seek no cause
No grievance brings me near
I come where merchant vessels berth
With cloth and grain and gear
The proud may gather sword and shield
The brave may guard the gate
No wall hath ever troubled me
Nor iron stayed my fate
Hide thy wives and children well
And pray I pass thee by
Bolt every lock and still thy tongue
And heed the watchman’s cry
No coin I seek, no crown I claim
No oath shall make me run
Keep close whatever thou dost love
For I have surely come
First comes the heat beneath thy skin
Then weakness steals thy tread
A swelling grows beneath thine arm
And soon thou take’st thy bed
One household mourns, the next falls still
Then tolls another bell
Before the grave hath closed on one
Another sick man fell
And when the morning finds thee whole
Count not thyself secure
No physic brought by learned hands
Can promise thee a cure
Thy silver may remain untouched
Thy rafters stand above
Yet earth may close before the week
On those whom thou dost love
Hide thy wives and children well
And pray I pass thee by
Bolt every lock and still thy tongue
And heed the watchman’s cry
No coin I seek, no crown I claim
No oath shall make me run
Keep close whatever thou dost love
For I have surely come