Those Dancing Days are Gone

Happy June Solstice, everyone! It's the longest night of the year down under, and we're waiting for the light.

In the meantime, we present to you a new Paper Dragon song released today on our Music page. It's called "Those Dancing Days are Gone" and sets to music the following cryptic poem by one our favorite dead Williams.

Those Dancing Days are Gone
By William Butler Yeats, 1929

Come, let me sing into your ear;
Those dancing days are gone,
All that silk and satin gear;
Crouch upon a stone,
Wrapping that foul body up
In as foul a rag:
I carry the sun in a golden cup.
The moon in a silver bag.

Curse as you may I sing it through;
What matter if the knave
That the most could pleasure you,
The children that he gave,
Are somewhere sleeping like a top
Under a marble flag?
I carry the sun in a golden cup.
The moon in a silver bag.

I thought it out this very day.
Noon upon the clock,
A man may put pretence away
Who leans upon a stick,
May sing, and sing until he drop,
Whether to maid or hag:
I carry the sun in a golden cup,
The moon in a silver bag.

What does it mean? Is it seasonally appropriate? We have our hunches and doubts, but come, let us sing.