Another New World

The leading lights of the age all wondered amongst themselves what I would do next
After all that I've found, in my travels around the world
Was there anything left?
"Gentlemen," I said
"I've studied the charts, and if what I am thinking is right
There's another new world, at the top of the world, for the first one who breaks through the ice,"
And I looked 'round the room

In that way I once had, and I saw that they wanted belief
So I said, "All I've got are my guts and my God," then I paused
"And the Annabelle Lee."
Oh, the Annabelle Lee, and I saw their eyes shine, the most beautiful ship in the sea
My Niña, my Pinta, my Santa Maria, my beautiful Annabelle Lee

[Interlude]

That spring we set sail, the crowds waved from the shore, and on board the crew waved their hats
But I never had family, just the Annabelle Lee, so I never had cause to look back
I just set the course north, and I'd study the charts, and towards dawn I drifted toward sleep
And I dreamed of the fine, deep harbor I'd find past the ice, for my Annabelle Lee
After that it got colder

The world got quiet
It was never quite day or quite night
And the sea turned the color of sky
Turned the color of sea
Turned the color of ice
'Till at last all around us was vastness, one vast glassy desert of arsenic white
And the waves that once lifted us, shifted instead into drifts against Annabelle's side
And the crew gathered closer
At first for the warmth, but each day would bring a new set
Of tracks in the snow, leading over the edge of the world, 'til I was the only one left

Then it gets cloudy
But it seems like I laid there for days, or maybe for months
Oh, but Annabelle held me, just the two of us happy
To think back on all we had done

[Solo]

We talked of the other new worlds
We'd discover as she gave up her body to me
And as I chopped up her mainsail for timber
I told her of all that we still had to see
As the frost turned her moorings to nine-tail
And the wind lashed her sides in the cold
I burned her to keep me alive every night in the loving embrace of her hold
And I won't call it rescue
That brought me back here to the old world to drink and decline
And pretend that the search for another new world was well, worth the burning of mine
But sometimes at night, in my dreams
Comes the singing of some unknown tropical bird
And I smile in my sleep
Thinking Annabelle Lee's finally made it to another new world

Yeah, sometimes at night in my dreams comes the singing of some unknown tropical bird
And I smile in my sleep, thinking Annabelle Lee's finally made it to another new world