When all the worst we fear lets fall its weight

When the gyre widens on and when the wave breaks

When St. Peter loses cool and bars the Gates

When Atlas acts the maggot, makes his arms shake

When the birds are heard again in their singing

Once atrocity is hoarse from voicing shame

When the earth is trembling on some new beginning

With the same sweet shock of when Adam first came



Be, be, be, be, be

Be as you've always been

Be, be, be, be, be

Be as you've always been (lover, be good to me)



Be as you've always been (lover, be good to me)

Be like the love that discovered sin (lover, be good to me)

That freed the first man and will do so again

And lover, be good to me (lover, be good to me)

Be the hopeful feeling when Eden was lost (lover, be good to me)

That's been deaf to our laughter since the master was crossed (lover, be good to me)

Which side of the wall really suffers that cost

Oh lover, be good to me



When the man who gives the order

Is born next time around on the boat sent back

When the bodies starving at the border

Are on TV giving people the sack

Oh, when the sea rises to meet us

Oh when there's nothing left for you and I to do

Oh when there's nobody upstairs to receive us

When I have no kind words left, love for you now



Be, be, be, be, be

Be as you've always been

Be, be, be, be, be

Be as you've always been (lover, be good to me)



Be love in its disrepute (lover, be good to me)

That scorches the hillside and salts every root (lover, be good to me)

And watches the slowing and starving of troops

And lover, be good to me (lover, be good to me)

Be there and just as you stand (lover, be good to me)

Or be like the rose that you hold in your hand (lover, be good to me)

That will grow bold in a barren and desolate land

And lover, be good to me (lover, be good to me)



Love won't you be

Love won't you be

Be as you've always been?

Love won't you be

Love won't you be

Be as you've always been?

Love won't you be

Love won't you be

Be as you've always been?

Love won't you be

Love won't you be

Be as you've always been?



(Lover, be good to me)