Lime and limpid green, a second scene
Now fights between the blue you once knew
Floating down, the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground
Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania
Neptune, Titan, stars can frighten

Blinding signs flap,
Flicker, flicker, flicker blam, pow, pow
Stairway scare, Dan Dare, who's there?

Lime and limpid green, the sounds around
The icy waters under
Lime and limpid green, the sounds around
The icy waters underground


Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae

Astronomy Domine Lyrics as written by Syd Barrett

Lyrics © T.R.O. INC.

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Astronomy Domine song meanings
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54 Comments

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  • +7
    General Comment

    The lyrics, like many of those from acid-inspired songs, are largely a rhythm device. The meaning of the song is in the guitar line. Dave Gilmour's live version (Ummagumma) is technically exquisite, but doesn't transmit Syd's original ideas. This, along with A Saucerful of Secrets, gives me 'bad' memories sometimes; remnants of a misspent youth!

    Libraquariuson November 09, 2004   Link
  • +5
    General Comment

    Syd Barrett's Floyd was extremely different from what Floyd would come to be. By that measure, I find it unfair to compare the two stages, and I really prefer to think of Piper as having been produced by a different band than Dark Side of the Moon.

    This is the best Barrett song. Who knows what it's about. It depends, like many Floyd songs, on your mood. That's what makes PF so good. Through all of it's stages.

    inpraiseoffollyon April 06, 2006   Link
  • +3
    My Interpretation

    Lime and limpid green, is the second scene.

    It's about being surrounded by the blue sky and falling to the green grass on the ground. Floating down, the sound resounds. Flicker, flicker, flicker blam. Pow, pow as you hit the dirt.

    You feel like you're sinking into the ground and you hear the icy waters beneath.

    You see stars, Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania, Neptune, Titan, Stars can frighten. Blinding signs flap.

    Stairway to heaven scare. You think you're dying. You see Dan Dare, the pilot of the future.

    So there, it's about falling.

    Oh yeah, and being on acid.

    TheBeckleson July 07, 2010   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Hell. floating down the sound resounds around thee i see waters underground. think about it.

    hulioon February 28, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Everyone here has no difficulty to say it's about a trip on LSD... and what do you do when you're in such a state? You have visions, you create a whole world that leaves from your mind. So if "domine" is latin, the latin word for "Master","Creator","God", literally "Lord", Syd may have been the Lord of Astronomy because of LSD... Lord of that new world in which vivid colours battle, typical sceneries that were in syd's mind appear, like the figures of planets and moons that may come from sci-fi or other experiences. And then the stairway scare of Dan Dare confronted with the vacuum terror of the mind trip or the careful choice of words to amplify given sounds... the song is quite simple: as it comes out by a genius mind (ok helped by lsd).

    mrzepon October 10, 2008   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    If this song was just about acid, it would suck. Its exact meaning is irrelevant. What it evokes is something that a lot of Floyd songs do, even after Syd. A sense of fear around darkness, emptiness, and the power of that fear. This song relates that horror to the profound darkness and cold of space and the universe. This is not a unique perspective. The universe holds all the secrets of dark and light. It's all there. What you bring relates to what you take away. I've looked and seen overwhelming emptiness, then again, I've felt the comfort of harmony, and infinite light of being connected and part of it all, from the tiniest atom on up.

    hudsterboyon April 20, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Once again wrong lyrics

    Lime and limpid green, a second scene A fight between the blue you once knew. Floating down, the sound resounds Around the icy waters underground. Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania. Neptune, Titan, Stars can frighten.

    Blinding signs flap Flicker, flicker, flicker blam. Pow, pow. Stairway scare, Dan Dare who's there? Lime and limpid green, the sounds around the icy waters under Lime and limpid green, the sounds around the icy waters underground

    craiguson March 29, 2003   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    This Song gives the feeling of space travel, and the lyrics describe what you are seeing. At the beginning their is a countdown then the song takes off, then he's describing the earth.

    hulioon December 24, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Astronomy: the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole

    Domine: dominus: a clergyman; especially a settled minister or parson

    hulioon March 01, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    hulio: if this is about hell, why is it about icy water instead of firey purgatory?

    RoboLuncheonon March 09, 2005   Link

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