The Poet and the Pendulum

"The Poet and the Pendulum" is the opening track of Finnish symphonic power metal quintet Nightwish' sixth studio album Dark Passion Play. It was officially released with the album in Finland on September 26, 2007, but it was leaked in July the same year on the Internet.

A demo version was released on the "Bye Bye Beautiful" single on February 15, 2008. The clearest difference from the original version is that Marco Hietala performs all the vocals, including the ones originally performed by boy soprano Tom Williams and the ones by Anette Olzon (since she joined the band after the demo recording). Also it does not feature some background sounds, such as the whispering in White Lands of Empathica. The text is also a bit changed, in the spoken part of The Pacific, as they were prohibited to release the first version.

It is the longest track on both the album and in the band's history, 13 minutes and 57 seconds long. It is also considered one of their most epic pieces, together with "Beauty of the Beast" and "Ghost Love Score". According to Last.fm it is the most listened song from the album except the three singles "Eva", "Amaranth" and "Bye Bye Beautiful". The composer, band leader and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen has expressed that he is very happy with this song, and before its release he officially reported this as being his favorite Nightwish song ever.

"The Poet and the Pendulum" clearly is the lead song of Dark Passion Play; besides being the longest song and the album opener, the album was also at first supposed to be titled The Poet and the Pendulum. It was changed into Dark Passion Play for several reasons, including that it at first was too long to be an album title, and that Tuomas didn't want an entire album entitled after him (as he is the poet in the song). "Dark Passion Play", however, also comes from the lyrics of the song ("The morning dawned, upon his altar / Remains of the dark passion play / Performed by his friends without shame / Spitting on his grave as they came") and the fourth part of the song is also called "Dark Passion Play". The story behind the track also is a passion play.

In addition to the vocals provided by Olzon and Hietala, several parts of the song are supplemented by the voice of a young boy soprano, Tom Williams.

Story

The song is partly based on an 1842 short story by Edgar Allan Poe called "The Pit and the Pendulum". In this story the main character is captured and sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition. He awakes to find himself on a board and a scythe-like blade swinging from the ceiling coming closer and closer to him. In The Poet and the Pendulum, composer / keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen dies by that method. He is later reborn in the story and bids farewell to his mother and father.

Tuomas has stated after Dark Passion Play's release that he through that time was followed by sorrow and grief, being close to committing suicide. This started in 2005, as the band fired vocalist Tarja Turunen, and he started to be followed by media and fans as well as the longing for Tarja's friendship. 2005 is mentioned as the year he dies in The Poet and the Pendulum, however, in the demo version the year is 2007.

The song is split into five sub-sections, titled 'White Lands Of Empathica', 'Home', 'The Pacific', 'Dark Passion Play' and 'Mother & Father'. In the first part of the song ("White Lands of Empathica"), a choir boy (Tom Williams) tells the story about how Tuomas Holopainen has died under the blade ("The songwriter's dead / The blade fell upon him / Taking him to the white lands / Of Empathica / Of innocence").

In the second part ("Home"), the narrator goes back in time, before his death. He tells about the grief and sorrow, how he knows that he is about to die ("One last perfect verse"), and the feelings of being misplaced in this world ("Take me home"). There's also a reference to the Nightwish song "Meadows of Heaven"; this song is about memories about the innocent childhood, and that is what this verse of "The Poet and the Pendulum" also is about ("My home was there 'n then / Those meadows of heaven / Adventure-filled days / One with every smiling face").

In the first half of part three, "The Pacific", he reminisces how his life used to be, and here he now lies on the board waiting for his death ("Swaying blade my lullaby"). Later in that part, he speaks of the sorrow in knowing his time is to come, that he only has "three minutes and counting".

The fourth part, entitled "Dark Passion Play", is clearly the heaviest and angriest part, in which Holopainen blames and accuses his friends for his death ("2nd robber to the right of Christ"). The second half is spoken, explaining how Holopainen died, happy (In the year of our lord, 2005, Tuomas was called from the cares of the world. He stopped cyring at the end of each beautiful day. The music he wrote had too long been without silence. He was found naked and dead, with a smile on his face, a pen, and 1000 pages of erased text).

In the final part "Mother & Father" is written from his mother perspective, about how he returns to earth to bid his parents farewell.

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