LyricMeaning

The Mariner's Revenge Song
The Decemberists

We are two mariners
Our ship's sole survivors
In this belly of a whale
It's ribs are ceiling beams
It's guts are carpeting
I guess we have some time to kill

You may not remember me
I was a child of three
And you, a lad of eighteen
But, I remember you
And I will relate to you
How our histories interweave
At the time you were
A rake and a roustabout
Spending all your money
On the whores and hounds
(Oh, oh)

You had a charming air
All cheap and debonair
My widowed mother found so sweet
And so she took you in
Her sheets still warm with him
Now filled with filth and foul disease
As time wore on you proved
A debt-ridden drunken mess
Leaving my mother
A poor consumptive wretch
(Oh, oh)

And then you disappeared
Your gambling arrears
The only thing you left behind
And then the magistrate
Reclaimed our small estate
And my poor mother lost her mind
Then, one day in spring
My dear sweet mother died
But, before she did
I took her hand as she, dying, cried:
(Oh, oh)

Find him, find him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave

It took me fifteen years
To swallow all my tears
Among the urchins in the street
Until a priory
Took pity and hired me
To keep their vestry nice and neat
But, never once in the employ
Of these holy men
Did I ever, once turn my mind
From the thought of revenge
(Oh, oh)

One night I overheard
The prior exchanging words
With a penitent whaler from the sea
The captain of his ship
Who matched you toe to tip
Was known for wanton cruelty
The following day
I shipped to sea
With a privateer
And in the whistle
Of the wind
I could almost hear
(Oh, oh)

Find him, find him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave

There is one thing I must say to you
As you sail across the sea
Always, your mother will watch over you
As you avenge this wicked deed

And then, that fateful night
We had you in our sight
After twenty months, it seemed
Your starboard flank abeam
I was getting my muskets clean
When came this rumbling from beneath
The ocean shook
The sky went black
And the captain quailed
And before us grew
The angry jaws
Of a giant whale

(Oh)

Don't know how I survived
The crew all was chewed alive
I must have slipped between his teeth
But, oh, what providence
What divine intelligence
That you should survive
As well as me
It gives my eye great joy
To see your eyes fill with fear
To lean in close
And I will whisper
The last words you'll hear
(Oh, oh)


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Lyrics by The Decemberists

  12-17-12   16 By 32   A Beginning Song   A Cautionary Song   Angel, Won't You Call Me?   Angel, Won't You Call Me?   Anti-Summersong   As I Rise   Better Not Wake The Baby   Billy Liar   Bridges and Balloons (Joanna Newsom cover)   California One/youth And Beauty Brigade   Carolina Low   Cavalry Captain   Clementine   Clementine (Elliott Smith cover)   Cocoon   Constantinople   Don't Carry It All   Don't Carry It All   Easy Come, Easy Go   Eli, The Barrow Boy   Everything I Try To Do, Nothing Seems To Turn Out   Grace Cathedral Hill   Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect   Human Behaviour (Björk cover)   I Don't Mind   I Don't Mind   I Was Meant For The Stage   Isn't It A Lovely Night?   July, July!   Lake Song   Leslie Anne Levine   Like a Lion   Los Angeles, I'm Yours   Los Angeles, I'm Yours   Lost At Sea   Make You Better   Mistral   My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist   Myla Goldberg   Oceanside   Odalisque   Of Angels And Angles   On the Bus Mall   One Engine   Philomena   Red Right Ankle   Rox In The Box   Shankhill Butchers   Shankill Butchers   Shanty For The Arethusa   Shiny   Sixteen Military Wives   Sonnet   Sunshine   The Apology Song   The Bachelor And The Bride   The Bagman's Gambit   The Bagman's Gambit   The Chimbley Sweep   The Crane Wife 1 & 2   The Crane Wife 1 & 2   The Engine Driver   The Gymnast, High Above The Ground   The Infanta   The Island: Come & See/the Landlord's Daughter/you...   The Island: Come & See/the Landlord's Dau...   The Kingdom Of Spain   The Legionnaire's Lament   The Legionnaire's Lament   The Mariner's Revenge Song   The Perfect Crime #1   The Rake’s Song   The Singer Addresses His Audience   The Soldiering Life   The Sporting Life   The Tain   The Wrong Year   Till The Water Is All Long Gone   We Both Go Down Together   Youth And Beauty Brigade

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