The Ocean Beyond The Sea

A hidden place is repeated at the end of every stanza in The Ocean Beyond The Sea. It holds "elixir for all who grieve," and the verses keep stacking up places that the powerful cannot reach: a forest where a songbird "who's been released" sings beyond the fowler, a valley "above the reaches of human kind" that towers could never find, and a highway beyond where "power is bought and sold."

Each time, the ones who fail to find it are hunters, builders, and the rich, while the shipwrecked are the ones who do. The two bridges move from landscape to sound, passing the scarecrows, temples, tyrant, sirens, and silence to reach "a whisper / As soft as iron / As safe as lions." The paradoxes, "soft as thunder" and "cold as fire," suggest a presence that does not fit ordinary categories.

The quiet voice that comes only after the noise recalls the "still small voice" Elijah heard in 1 Kings 19:12, and the promise of comfort for the grieving fits Psalm 34:18, where the Lord is near the brokenhearted. The song never states its meaning plainly, so the listener fills in who is whispering.