Ocean
The sea as expanse, depth, and current: a body of water that the song treats as the measure of distance, the limit of what can be crossed, or the element in which the speaker is suspended, tossed, or lost. Across the catalogue ocean imagery activates in several registers: the depth of indelible promises (the absolute, the unforgettable), the salt of tears, the separating distance between two figures unable to reach each other, the shore where waves arrive (or fail to), and the surface where ships sink and lovers stare out from rocks. The image is most often paired with the body's relationship to it (jumping in, being swept out, drowning, swimming, watching from land) and the song's argument often turns on whether the ocean is crossed, entered, or held at a distance.
The ocean carries the doubled charge of vastness and depth - of what cannot be measured, contained, or fully crossed. As distance it separates lovers, parents and children, the speaker and the past; as depth it serves as the figure for absolute commitment (oceans-deep promises) or the absolute end (the things that go out to sea and are lost). The salt makes it the natural image of tears, the wave-and-shore figure makes it the natural image of meeting and parting, and the surface makes it the natural image of what gets tossed, sunk, or floated.
Appears in 21 songs
“Words from the mouths of babes, promises oceans deep But never to keep”
The ocean represents the depth and seeming permanence of childhood promises, they feel absolute and indelible. But the ocean is also salty like tears, and its depth makes the promises unreachable rather than merely deep.
“Pacing the rocks, staring out at the midnight sea”
The ocean represents the vast, unknowable expanse that Rebekah stares into, her isolation and grief externalized as a midnight sea. The rocks and crashing water create sensory depth while placing Rebekah at the boundary between land and water, between the town that judged her and something beyond its reach.
“Salt air, and the rust on your door”
The salt air establishes the coastal summer setting, a vacation place where summer romances happen, temporary by nature.
“I'm on waves, out being tossed”
The ocean/waves imagery represents the speaker being tossed about by depression with no control, connected to the 'unmoored' metaphor, the shipwreck, and the folklore tradition of poisonous bodies of water during dog days.
“Clear blue water, high tide came and brought you in”
“Skies grew darker, currents swept you out again”
“I'm like the water when your ship rolled in that night”
“Lost in your current like a priceless wine”
“Clear blue water, high tide came and brought you in”
“Skies grew darker, currents swept you out again”
“Waves crash to the shore, I dash to the door”
“Jumping off things in the ocean”
“'Cause it's all over now, all out to sea”
“Now it's big black cars and Riviera views”
“He was trying to skip rocks on the ocean”
“Ships on waters, so inviting, I almost jump in”
“And so the battleships will sink beneath the waves”
“I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm if your cascade, ocean wave blues come”
“And my waves meet your shore ever and evermore”
“We were stupid to jump in the ocean separating us”
“Ocean blue eyes looking in mine, I feel like I might sink and drown and die”
“Everyone swimming in a champagne sea”
“Now it's big black cars and Riviera views”
“He was trying to skip rocks on the ocean”