Rock Poetry Line by Line

"The End"

“The End” by The Doors, 1967.

From The Doors; Jim Morrison: lyrics.

Composers: Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger, Densmore.

A/N:  Adult content; video has strong language.

The End Sonneta

He sang poetry with words that rocked us,

We scratched our heads listening to The End.

Its meanings we pondered and still discuss,

Though be warned some may shock, even offend.

 It was deemed to be Sophoclean, Joycean;

Critics studied The End to exhaustion.

A goodbye girl song, its depth unforeseen,

Meant much more over time to Morrison.

The surviving Doors wrote about this song,

Listeners mulled it from across the sea,

Interpretations varied; none were wrong,

Metaphors found by poets far and wee.

Was Morrison’s end then within his view?

Poetry lovers, he left this for you.--Lisa Cole-Allen.

“The End’

This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend

The end of our elaborate plans

The end of ev’rything that stands

The end

No safety or surprise

The end

I’ll never look into your eyes again

Can you picture what will be

So limitless and free

Desperately in need of

Some stranger’s hand

In a desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain

And all the children are insane

All the children are insane

Waiting for the summer rain

There’s danger on the edge of town

Ride the king’s highway

Weird scenes inside the goldmine

Ride the highway West baby

Ride the snake, ride the snake

To the lake, to the lake

The ancient lake baby

The snake is long, seven miles

Ride the snake

He’s old

And his skin is cold

The west is the best

The west is the best

Get here and we’ll do the rest

The blue bus is calling us