Shadow of the Black Death

[Intro] [Verse 1] In the year thirteen forty-seven, Ships from the East rolled in, Carried fleas on rats in their timbers, And a sickness would begin. The buboes swelled, the fevers burned, A cough that spread so fast, The bells they tolled, the people prayed, But hope did never last. [Chorus] Oh, the Black Death’s shadow, sweeping through the land, From Italy to England, it took us by the hand. A third of Europe vanished, beneath that mournful sky, The plague it rode the trade winds, and watched the nations die. [Verse 2] Doctors wore long-beaked masks of leather, Stuffed with herbs and spice, They thought the air itself was p****n, But they could not pay the price. Quarantines and b*****g fires, Prayers to saints above, But Yersinia pestis lingered, Far stronger than their love. [Chorus] Oh, the Black Death’s shadow, sweeping through the land, From France into the Baltic, it took us by the hand. No village left unbroken, no kingdom left to f***t, The plague it came at daytime, and lingered through the night. [Bridge] Some blamed the stars, some blamed the air, Some pointed hands in hate, But the fleas upon the black rats’ backs Decided Europe’s fate. [Verse 3] By fourteen fifty, it had waned, But returned again and again, London’s fire and plague together, Still haunt the hearts of men. And though today we hold the cure, In science we confide, The echoes of that Black Death song, Still echo far and wide. [Chorus] Oh, the Black Death’s shadow, sweeping through the land, From Venice up to Moscow, it took us by the hand. A third of Europe vanished, beneath that mournful sky, The plague it rode the trade winds, and watched the nations die. [Outro]