Verse 1 Down by the rusted fairground gate, Where the old cage groaned in rain, There lived a bear with a mountain’s stare And a heart gone hard with pain. Folks would pass and point and laugh, Throwing words like stones in air, But one fool stayed with a wicked grin Just to rile that captive bear. Chorus Oh, don’t you taunt what you do not know, Don’t dance where the wild things glare, For iron bends and tempers break When you corner a beast in despair. He beat on bars for a thousand nights, Till one small fault laid open there, And the man who laughed at the caged-up wrath Met his end by the teeth of the bear. Verse 2 He jabbed a stick through the narrow slats, Spat venom, cheap and proud, Called the beast a broken king To amuse the drinking crowd. But a bolt half-loose from a careless hand, And a latch not set just right, Turned mockery into a funeral hymn In the middle of that blackened night. Chorus Oh, don’t you taunt what you do not know, Don’t dance where the wild things glare, For iron bends and tempers break When you corner a beast in despair. He beat on bars for a thousand nights, Till one small fault laid open there, And the man who laughed at the caged-up wrath Met his end by the teeth of the bear. Verse 3 They say the scream cut through the dark Like a bell no soul could drown, And the crowd went white as the old cage door Fell wide and thundered down. No mercy lived in that moonlit yard, No joke survived the air, Just the law of blood and the weight of rage And the shadow of a standing bear. Bridge So sing no song for the fool who jeered, But sing for the chains we make, For the hands that cage and the mouths that tease And the fury they awake. A beast may bow, a beast may wait, But the wild is always there, And death walks close to the laughing man Who makes a sport of a suffering bear. Final Chorus Oh, don’t you taunt what you do not know, Don’t dance where the wild things glare, For iron bends and tempers break When you corner a beast in despair. He beat on bars for a thousand nights, Till one small fault laid open there, And the man who laughed at the caged-up wrath Was carried off by the bear.
