[Music and lyrics by Tony Kakko]
I was born and raised by the sea; shy yet proud,
learned to stay away from the crowd,
in my home, my lighthouse.
101 steps, round and down,
New Years Eve, one night on the town
can change one life into eternity.
All I could see - her eyes.
We got caught in the moment all of the night.
Taken beyond all lines,
in silence, leaving them all behind.
She had found the sails for the following night.
The town, for her, was getting way too small.
She promised to be mine forever, for that one night ...
Moments, passion, small defeats.
Concealed emotions found in me.
"You gave life to a brand new me ..."
Crossing the wintry fields the first hour of morning light.
Warmed by the flame inside -
the lasting memory of the ending night.
I never had a chance to stop what hit me,
what broke my bones and mauled me.
After hours of deep unwilling sleep in a cold shelter,
fell back in the dark, and the hours of the day passed ...
A nightmare awakes me, blinking light,
there's no guide - blind ships in the night!
Oh, blood red moon, eat away the night ...
Darkness covers my lonely soul,
no one to feed the dying light ...
Good morn', oh dreadful day.
I prayed the moon had lit the sea instead of me, for the sails of night.
"Please tell me everything is alright ..."
My voice in the room broke the silence,
everybody killed me with their eyes ...
what I was to hear made the people cry -
impossible for me to keep the tears inside.
"All on the board the White Pearl have died!
Coastal reef has tolled their lives,
and you are the light of the night!"
One thing I remember, before I fell on the ground,
although I never saw the face,
a name was inked in his arm ...
Love can be like poetry of demons, or maybe God loves complex irony?
The family name stated I had seen before ...
written on her front door!
"Silence in the courthouse!"
A presence in the room we both could feel -
the father of her unborn child and me.
All on the board the White Pearl have died,
coastal reef has tolled their lives,
while I was the guide light!
Back in my tower, run, run, run - light is out.
I hope to see black oceans beneath rise and swallow me!
One step will take me back inside, another sees my end.
No one can love a man who guarded the light one fateful night ...
Flaming eyes I must confront before I am stated free.
Defining innocence is hell after all that has passed.
Building new walls inside my eternal night.
Although they took my heart and dried me up,
sometimes I still bleed ...
Show me the way ...
The light will show me a way on the grisly reefs,
too many dead ends I see.
No soul can save me -
the respect I lost, the measure of a man.
10,000 steps down, round and round,
one night on the town and I'm hell bound.
Black oceans beneath, come and swallow me!
All on board the White Pearl have died,
coastal reef come claim my life!
Black oceans beneath, come and swallow me!
My little tower, seal my fate,
help me pay back - end their hate.
Black oceans beneath, come and swallow me!
One direction; down, down, down ...
pitch black night for my old town,
black oceans beneath shall now swallow me.
"I hereby commit my body to the deep,
to be turned into corruption,
looking for the resurrection of the body,
when the Sea shall give up Her dead,
and the life of the world to come,
through our Lord.
Amen."
Please Click here to submit the Corrections of White Pearl, Black Oceans Lyrics
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The story, filled with sorrow | Reviewer: Dante | 12/12/10
What I make of it is this:
A shy man, keeper of the lighthouse, has rarely ventured forth from his tower, if ever. He goes to town to celebrate New Year's, but there meets a woman. She promises to be his forever, though she was lying: "She had found the sails for the following night" was referring to her plan to leave town by ship the next day. After spending the night with her, he wakes alone: she has gone to the White Pearl already. His first stark realization is that the lighthouse was unattended the whole night, so he tries desperatly to reach it. While he was on his way, though, he is struck and falls unconscious. His attacker drags him far away thereafter. When he wakes some time later, he first thinks of the lighthouse. It has undeniably gone out. He prays that the moon light the sea, on a cloudless night, before passing out again. He wakes later, back in town, and, seeing many going to the courthouse, he goes there, and a tense silence forms. "For the sails of night, please tell me everything's alright!" he blurts, breaking the silence. Somebody tells him of the tragity of the White Pearl, elicting tears from all in the room. He says what little he remembers of the previous night. Then, the tatooed man, presumably the woman's husband, stares the lighthouse keeper down, as they both feel her presence. Though pronounced innocent, he knows the town hates him and wishes him dead. He flees to the lighthouse, climbs to the top, and stands on the edge. Knowing one step either way seals his fate, he hesitates for a while, before stepping off the brink, dashing himself on the same rocks that claimed so many because of him. He utters a final prayer in hopes of some leniency during his judgement.
A Potential Storyline | Reviewer: Chris | 10/6/10
The lighthouse keeper has lived a sheltered life, rarely (if ever) venturing outside or into the town proper. He is very socially anxious; he knows precisely how far away he is from discomfort.
But this changed on New Year's Eve; this was the first time he's been at a social gathering for years. He made the decision to join the celebration, if only to have a glimmer of social interaction.
But now it is now January the 2nd, and the lighthouse keeper is standing atop his home, looking back on how things went so wrong... and deciding whether or not to end his own life.
Walking through the streets towards the gathering, her eyes met his as she exited her house; they were "all [he] could see". The combination of his awkward shyness and her newfound freedom - both unspoken - are a perfect mix. They accompanied eachother to the festivities, but neither were interested in the party. For him, it was love at first sight. For her, it was much needed attention and kindness. Seeking privacy, they left the town behind, walking out into the fields. The woman opened up to the lighthouse keeper, but he heard very little, caught up in the moment. She explained that she was leaving the next day, on a ship called the White Pearl. Her excuse: the town "was getting way too small". The whirlwind romance escalated as the night drew on, and he was overwhelmed by hitherto unexplored emotions and feelings; the two made love well into the small hours of the morning. While he slept, she left to catch her ship.
Dawn broke, and the lighthouse keeper awoke alone. He immediately set off, back across the fields in the "morning light, warmed by the flame inside". He had experienced love, if only briefly, and was starting to view his sheltered life differently.
Before he could get very close to the town, however, he was ambushed by someone and assaulted. The lighthouse keeper is no fighter, and was knocked out cold, badly beaten and with several broken bones. Dragged out of sight to a "cold shelter" by his assailant, he laid there unconscious well into the evening.
As the moon rose in the evening of New Year's Day, the lighthouse keeper awoke with a start, blinking sight back into his eyes. His first fevered thoughts were of the lighthouse - the light will have surely gone out. He silently implored the blood-red moon to light the way, prayed for a night free of clouds, then fell unconscious again.
When he next awoke, he was in a bed. Not his own. The sun was shining through a window. His bones had been set, his fever tended to... but still, his only thoughts were for the lighthouse and the ships that relied on it.
He stumbled out of the makeshift bed, down some stairs. He found himself in the town's community building, and the hall below was full of people.
"Please tell me everything is alright..." he blurted out, breaking a tense silence. Everybody present turned their hateful stares towards him.
"All on board the White Pearl have died!" announced a tattooed man from across the room, eliciting tears from the crowd and the lighthouse keeper alike, falling unbidden down his face. The ship crashed on a reef. There were no survivors. "And you are the light of the night!" the accusation finished, the crowd parting.
A flashback of his assault took a grip of the grief-filled lighthouse keeper; though he didn't see the face of his attacker, the tattoo on the arm of the man stood in front of him... it was him. The ink spelled out a family name... the same name he had seen at the very beginning of the night, above the door of his female companion. The mayor called for silence, but the lighthouse keeper didn't hear. It all became clear.
The man was her husband. She was running away, newly pregnant, to board... the White Pearl.
The lighthouse keeper darted from the hall, out into the streets. He was not followed. As he sprinted back towards his home, his mind raced with self-accusation. He approached the lighthouse; the light was out. And now he is here, standing on the ledge, his mind awash with grief and regret, willing the ocean to rise and swallow him.
He weighs up his options; one step either way will decide his fate. But how can he go on living? He couldn't continue as a lighthouse keeper, not now... after letting so many die. It's the only life he knows and he can't live it anymore. He can't even look the people in the eyes and protest his innocence, beg for their mercy. But is he truly innocent?
He shouldn't have left, he shouldn't have gone out, he should have stayed inside like normal, why did he go out? Because... despite his loneliness, he was still human.
He implores his lighthouse to show him a way, imagines a light shining down towards the rocks below. Another dead end, but that's all he has. His soul is beyond saving... he's no longer human.
The 101 steps may as well be 10,000, descending straight into hell. The lighthouse keeper jumps.
Falling, he calls out to the black waters, urging them towards him. His last thoughts are of those on the White Pearl, dead... he asks the very same reef to take him, too... and the ocean takes him.
As oblivion claims him, he recites a final prayer.
White pearl black oceans | Reviewer: Arif | 9/19/09
My version of the review:
The intro lyrics are basically the whole story.
A lighthouse keeper who had spent most of his life by the sea, and was raised in his home, a lighthouse. Judging from the lyrics, he rarely goes down to town but when New Years eve came he thought about spending the night at town. In the town he met this beautiful woman, they fell in love and spent the night together and enjoyed a memorable moment. After that, someone attacked him. "I never had a chance to stop what hit me" he wasnt able to see his attacker and so he somewhat fainted from the attack. After long hours of unwilling sleep (fainted from the attack), he was awakened by a nightmare, he had forgottened to guide the ships from the lighthouse thus making them lose thier way and destroyed them. He killed the people on the ship that sailed the black ocean.And the woman was on the ship he ahd destroyed.
The next day, he was captured and sent to court. "Please tell me everything is alright", it seems that he didnt know what had happened and why he was brought there. The people in there looked at him with anger and disbelief because he did not know what had happened and why he was brought there. He felt scared and couldnt keep his tears and cried.
"All on the board the White Pearl have died!
Coastal reef has tolled their lives,
and you are the light of the night!"
The judge told him what had happened, he didnt remember anything before he fainted. But he could remember one thing of his attacker, he had the name of the woman he spent with last night tattoed to his arm. So his attacker somewhat had connections with the girl he spent the night with, maybe he was her husband because she was pregnant at that time, she decided to run away but then met this lighthouse keeper and fell inlove. This guy saw the light house keeper and his woman going through the door that had her name on it. This explains how he remembered he had seen the name on teh tattoo somewhere on a door. He was found not guilty and was released to become a free man. But he felt so full of guilt he hated himself, he wanted to commit suicide.
He thought that if he commited suicide the hatred of the people towards him would end. He hadnt knowned that one night in town could make his life a living hell. He climbed his 10000 round and round steps in the light house until he was at the top, and jumped off into the black ocean, he commited suicide.
"I hereby commit my body to the deep,
to be turned into corruption,
looking for the resurrection of the body,
when the Sea shall give up Her dead,
and the life of the world to come,
through our Lord.
Amen."
I'm still amazed at how beautiful SA song can be... | Reviewer: Lisa | 7/19/09
ok, there is this lighthouse keeper who leaves the lighthouse for one night on New Years Eve. He leaves the light on, and he knows the light will keep on shining for dome time (you know, you have to feed it every now and then, once you've fed it, it'll go on a few hours or sth like that). He goes in the town, meets this girl and spends the night with her.
She says she'll sail the following night, that is she'll sail on Jan 1st.
He then doesn't go back in time to the lighthouse, he falls asleep in the morning somewhere, so all during Jan 1st there is no-one to feed the light. And in that period of the year, it's dark almost the whole day, so it doesn't need to be midnight to be all dark: even if it's afternoon, it'll still be dead dark, so there's no light. And so the White Pearl sinks; the girl was on that ship: she died (she must have died, otherwise she would have been mentioned again during the song).
I think that thing about the tattoo is just a mean to make us understand that man was bound to the girl, probably he was her husband since the girl was pregnant.
then the keeper isn't sentenced to anything for the accident, he's free, he can go back to the lighthouse, But he can't live with the remorse, so he kills himself jumping into the ocean from the tower.
OTHER POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION:
another possibility is that the girl wasn't on the White Pearl, and the reason why he doesn't mention the girl in the rest of the song is that he knows she won't love him anymore: "No one can love a man who guarded the light one fateful night".
Actually I don't think this is the right one, because this doesn't explain the unborn child and the tattooed man.
The storyline | Reviewer: brian | 6/29/09
This story is about a lighthouse keeper.
All his life he has been living in a tower
the lighthouse is a night job so he can't spend time in the town during the night.
One night he decides to go to the town for new years eve figuring he will be back in to the lighthouse by nightfall.
But he is temted by a girl who promises him that she will be his forever("for that one night" is what he figured out later). he goes to bed with her and falls asleep.He wakes up in the morning and finds out there was no one in the tower to light the way for the ships in the night.
He runs back to the tower and finds out a ship has crushed on the cost and everybody died ("Coastal reef has tolled their lives").
Later on he finds out that he impragnented the women he had slept with. Because of that the courthouse decides not to kill him because he has a child coming.
(the father of her unborn child is him)
(I never saw the face,a name was inked in his arm ...) (The family name stated I had seen before ... written on her front door!) i think she or someone else that know he was there when he wasn't at his job to keep the light runing.
That brings us to sad ending of the story. He wants to kill himself because everybody hate and want him dead. she also dont see him self fit to be even be loved. he take a small boat to the reef)(The light will show me a way on the grisly reefs) then he jumps in the water. (10,000 steps down) note the lighthouse only had 101 steps. he is sinking in the the black ocean. tho b4 he dose he prays or maby on the way down he dose for the veary few last lines. note just some of my ideas and a bit of copying didnt wont to type all the same stuff couse i did think of some of the same stuff.
Just a clarification. | Reviewer: Drulle | 4/25/09
The man with the tattoo on his arm was the pregnant woman's husband. She was probably trying to get away from him (hence her finding a ship to escape / cheating on him with the lighthouse-keeper).
"A presence in the room we both could feel,
the father of her unborn child and me."
The woman's husband and the lighthouse-keeper can sense her spirit in the courthouse with them. The lighthouse-keeper DIDN'T get her pregnant in one night, rofl. xD At least no one would know about it if he had. That just ... wouldn't make any logical sense.
I can't tell what happens at the trial - but at some point the lightouse-keeper flees to his tower and stands at the top, near the edge,
"One step will take me back inside, another sees my end.
No one can love a man who guarded the light one fateful night ...
Flaming eyes I must confront before I am stated free."
He may have been presumed innocent, but he knows that no one will show him any kindness or respect since the incident with the White Pearl. He throws himself off the tower into the sea and dies, in order to "pay back" the people of the town and "end their hate".
Amazing song. Amazing amazing amazing.
The storyline | Reviewer: OmeRavid | 4/8/09
This story is about a lighthouse keeper.
All his life he has been living in a tower
the lighthouse is a night job so he can't spend time in the town during the night.
One night he decides to go to the town for new years eve figuring he will be back in to the lighthouse by nightfall.
But he is temted by a girl who promises him that she will be his forever("for that one night" is what he figured out later). he goes to bed with her and falls asleep.He wakes up in the morning and finds out there was no one in the tower to light the way for the ships in the night.
He runs back to the tower and finds out a ship has crushed on the cost and everybody died ("Coastal reef has tolled their lives").
Later on he finds out that he impragnented the women he had slept with. Because of that the courthouse decides not to kill him because he has a child coming.
(the father of her unborn child is him)
That brings us to sad ending of the story. He wants to kill himself because everybody hate and want him dead but he cant kill himself because he has a child on the way. so he has to live with the fact that he killed many people and everybody hate him.
Someone should make a movie from this song
title | Reviewer: Kakkonot | 3/29/09
My interpretation:
The shy lighthouse keeper has guided the ships his entire life, but being lonely he spends his new years eve on the town.
He meets the girl who wants to leave by ship the following night and they are having a night.
When he wakes he gets hit and passes away.
Hes got that nightmare of the blind ships.
Next time he wakes, he prays that the moon has guided the ships instead of him, but the people standing around him (likely came to see why he didnt prevent the ship from sinking) tell him the white pearl sank.
Then he remembers the Name. This is the only strange part, I think the inked Name is just a stilistic device to make the listeners know it was the husband of the girl who hit him.
Considering this part of the song, I think the girl wants to get away from her husband for any reason
(mby because of her unborn child) and leave over the sea. She goes with the lighthouse keeper and promises to be his for the night, to hide in his lighthouse until next night. The Husband finds the lighthouse when she is gone and hits the keeper, the white pears sinks and she dies on it.
The presence in the courthouse is her spirit/ghost and the keeper and the husband (=father of her unborn child) can feel it.
It would make sense that the husband is angry because the unborn child is not his own but the keepers,but the lines
--"A presence in the room, we BOTH could feel
The father of her unborn child AND me"--
implicate that its not.
And i dont think there is a 3rd guy.
Then he cant bear the blame of all the deaths and the hate of the people and jumps into the ocean
@Merric | Reviewer: Nikos | 3/26/09
I think i can clear things up a bit for you (everyone) on that part. Note as he refers to ships as 'sails of night'.
as an example:
Good morn', oh dreadful day,
I prayed the moon had lit the sea instead of me...
For the sails of night,
"Please tell me everything's alright..."
He prays that the moon has lit the way for ships that have sailed by in the night.
so She had found the sails, for the following night
The town, for her, was getting way too small
She promised to be mine
Forever, ...for that one night...
Means that the girl had found a ship to sail on for the next night. Because the town was getting boring. That's also why she promised to be his for only that one night, she wouldnt be there the next night.
'A presence in the room, we both could feel
The father of her unborn child and me'
Refers to a man that impregnated her and is still alive. My guess would be a boyfriend. Though having a tatoo of your own name does seem a bit strange... but i guess its possible that if they where the only 2 living in the house that they took the girls name as a family name. would explain her name on the door.
Quite a bit of text here :) hope it clears somethings up. Do note that this is MY interpretation of the song. Doesn't have to be the right one :) it just makes sense to me
@Lester | Reviewer: Merric | 3/20/09
I was thinkin on the same thing, my first thought was her father aswell, but then the line:
'A presence in the room, we both could feel
The father of her unborn child and me'
Made me suspect an other boyfried, tho another lines make it unlikely:
'A name was inked in his arm....'
'The family name stated i've seen before'
Why would a boyfriend ink the family name of her love in his arm? Maybe her firstname, but her family's name? On the contrary, why would the fater ink his own family's name in his arm??
The line which i cannot understand is that:
'She found the sails for the following night'
What's that suppose to mean? If it refers to the accident of the White Pearl, then it should be written 'She found the sails OF the following night'..But it would be way too early in the song..Any clues?
SA is my fav band for 6yrs now, and Winterheart's Guild is one of the best emotionally filled albums on Earth imo! Power metal and SA FTW!
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The following area is only for review, if you want to submit the lyrics or the corrections of the lyrics, please click the link at the end of White Pearl, Black Oceans Lyrics.
Your Name: (Important: Your name will be published if you input it) Review for White Pearl, Black Oceans Lyrics ------ Performed by Sonata Arctica Please enter a title for your review: ------ 09/14/2012 Type your review in the space below:
Sonata Arctica BiographySonata Arctica AlbumsSonata Arctica Lyrics
I was born and raised by the sea; shy yet proud,
learned to stay away from the crowd,
in my home, my lighthouse.
101 steps, round and down,
New Years Eve, one night on the town
can change one life into eternity.
All I could see - her eyes.
We got caught in the moment all of the night.
Taken beyond all lines,
in silence, leaving them all behind.
She had found the sails for the following night.
The town, for her, was getting way too small.
She promised to be mine forever, for that one night ...
Moments, passion, small defeats.
Concealed emotions found in me.
"You gave life to a brand new me ..."
Crossing the wintry fields the first hour of morning light.
Warmed by the flame inside -
the lasting memory of the ending night.
I never had a chance to stop what hit me,
what broke my bones and mauled me.
After hours of deep unwilling sleep in a cold shelter,
fell back in the dark, and the hours of the day passed ...
A nightmare awakes me, blinking light,
there's no guide - blind ships in the night!
Oh, blood red moon, eat away the night ...
Darkness covers my lonely soul,
no one to feed the dying light ...
Good morn', oh dreadful day.
I prayed the moon had lit the sea instead of me, for the sails of night.
"Please tell me everything is alright ..."
My voice in the room broke the silence,
everybody killed me with their eyes ...
what I was to hear made the people cry -
impossible for me to keep the tears inside.
"All on the board the White Pearl have died!
Coastal reef has tolled their lives,
and you are the light of the night!"
One thing I remember, before I fell on the ground,
although I never saw the face,
a name was inked in his arm ...
Love can be like poetry of demons, or maybe God loves complex irony?
The family name stated I had seen before ...
written on her front door!
"Silence in the courthouse!"
A presence in the room we both could feel -
the father of her unborn child and me.
All on the board the White Pearl have died,
coastal reef has tolled their lives,
while I was the guide light!
Back in my tower, run, run, run - light is out.
I hope to see black oceans beneath rise and swallow me!
One step will take me back inside, another sees my end.
No one can love a man who guarded the light one fateful night ...
Flaming eyes I must confront before I am stated free.
Defining innocence is hell after all that has passed.
Building new walls inside my eternal night.
Although they took my heart and dried me up,
sometimes I still bleed ...
Show me the way ...
The light will show me a way on the grisly reefs,
too many dead ends I see.
No soul can save me -
the respect I lost, the measure of a man.
10,000 steps down, round and round,
one night on the town and I'm hell bound.
Black oceans beneath, come and swallow me!
All on board the White Pearl have died,
coastal reef come claim my life!
Black oceans beneath, come and swallow me!
My little tower, seal my fate,
help me pay back - end their hate.
Black oceans beneath, come and swallow me!
One direction; down, down, down ...
pitch black night for my old town,
black oceans beneath shall now swallow me.
"I hereby commit my body to the deep,
to be turned into corruption,
looking for the resurrection of the body,
when the Sea shall give up Her dead,
and the life of the world to come,
through our Lord.
Amen."
Please Click here to submit the Corrections of White Pearl, Black Oceans Lyrics
Please Click Here to Print White Pearl, Black Oceans Lyrics
Thanks to eliytres@live.com for submitting White Pearl, Black Oceans Lyrics.
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The story, filled with sorrow | Reviewer: Dante | 12/12/10
What I make of it is this:
A shy man, keeper of the lighthouse, has rarely ventured forth from his tower, if ever. He goes to town to celebrate New Year's, but there meets a woman. She promises to be his forever, though she was lying: "She had found the sails for the following night" was referring to her plan to leave town by ship the next day. After spending the night with her, he wakes alone: she has gone to the White Pearl already. His first stark realization is that the lighthouse was unattended the whole night, so he tries desperatly to reach it. While he was on his way, though, he is struck and falls unconscious. His attacker drags him far away thereafter. When he wakes some time later, he first thinks of the lighthouse. It has undeniably gone out. He prays that the moon light the sea, on a cloudless night, before passing out again. He wakes later, back in town, and, seeing many going to the courthouse, he goes there, and a tense silence forms. "For the sails of night, please tell me everything's alright!" he blurts, breaking the silence. Somebody tells him of the tragity of the White Pearl, elicting tears from all in the room. He says what little he remembers of the previous night. Then, the tatooed man, presumably the woman's husband, stares the lighthouse keeper down, as they both feel her presence. Though pronounced innocent, he knows the town hates him and wishes him dead. He flees to the lighthouse, climbs to the top, and stands on the edge. Knowing one step either way seals his fate, he hesitates for a while, before stepping off the brink, dashing himself on the same rocks that claimed so many because of him. He utters a final prayer in hopes of some leniency during his judgement.
A Potential Storyline | Reviewer: Chris | 10/6/10
The lighthouse keeper has lived a sheltered life, rarely (if ever) venturing outside or into the town proper. He is very socially anxious; he knows precisely how far away he is from discomfort.
But this changed on New Year's Eve; this was the first time he's been at a social gathering for years. He made the decision to join the celebration, if only to have a glimmer of social interaction.
But now it is now January the 2nd, and the lighthouse keeper is standing atop his home, looking back on how things went so wrong... and deciding whether or not to end his own life.
Walking through the streets towards the gathering, her eyes met his as she exited her house; they were "all [he] could see". The combination of his awkward shyness and her newfound freedom - both unspoken - are a perfect mix. They accompanied eachother to the festivities, but neither were interested in the party. For him, it was love at first sight. For her, it was much needed attention and kindness. Seeking privacy, they left the town behind, walking out into the fields. The woman opened up to the lighthouse keeper, but he heard very little, caught up in the moment. She explained that she was leaving the next day, on a ship called the White Pearl. Her excuse: the town "was getting way too small". The whirlwind romance escalated as the night drew on, and he was overwhelmed by hitherto unexplored emotions and feelings; the two made love well into the small hours of the morning. While he slept, she left to catch her ship.
Dawn broke, and the lighthouse keeper awoke alone. He immediately set off, back across the fields in the "morning light, warmed by the flame inside". He had experienced love, if only briefly, and was starting to view his sheltered life differently.
Before he could get very close to the town, however, he was ambushed by someone and assaulted. The lighthouse keeper is no fighter, and was knocked out cold, badly beaten and with several broken bones. Dragged out of sight to a "cold shelter" by his assailant, he laid there unconscious well into the evening.
As the moon rose in the evening of New Year's Day, the lighthouse keeper awoke with a start, blinking sight back into his eyes. His first fevered thoughts were of the lighthouse - the light will have surely gone out. He silently implored the blood-red moon to light the way, prayed for a night free of clouds, then fell unconscious again.
When he next awoke, he was in a bed. Not his own. The sun was shining through a window. His bones had been set, his fever tended to... but still, his only thoughts were for the lighthouse and the ships that relied on it.
He stumbled out of the makeshift bed, down some stairs. He found himself in the town's community building, and the hall below was full of people.
"Please tell me everything is alright..." he blurted out, breaking a tense silence. Everybody present turned their hateful stares towards him.
"All on board the White Pearl have died!" announced a tattooed man from across the room, eliciting tears from the crowd and the lighthouse keeper alike, falling unbidden down his face. The ship crashed on a reef. There were no survivors. "And you are the light of the night!" the accusation finished, the crowd parting.
A flashback of his assault took a grip of the grief-filled lighthouse keeper; though he didn't see the face of his attacker, the tattoo on the arm of the man stood in front of him... it was him. The ink spelled out a family name... the same name he had seen at the very beginning of the night, above the door of his female companion. The mayor called for silence, but the lighthouse keeper didn't hear. It all became clear.
The man was her husband. She was running away, newly pregnant, to board... the White Pearl.
The lighthouse keeper darted from the hall, out into the streets. He was not followed. As he sprinted back towards his home, his mind raced with self-accusation. He approached the lighthouse; the light was out. And now he is here, standing on the ledge, his mind awash with grief and regret, willing the ocean to rise and swallow him.
He weighs up his options; one step either way will decide his fate. But how can he go on living? He couldn't continue as a lighthouse keeper, not now... after letting so many die. It's the only life he knows and he can't live it anymore. He can't even look the people in the eyes and protest his innocence, beg for their mercy. But is he truly innocent?
He shouldn't have left, he shouldn't have gone out, he should have stayed inside like normal, why did he go out? Because... despite his loneliness, he was still human.
He implores his lighthouse to show him a way, imagines a light shining down towards the rocks below. Another dead end, but that's all he has. His soul is beyond saving... he's no longer human.
The 101 steps may as well be 10,000, descending straight into hell. The lighthouse keeper jumps.
Falling, he calls out to the black waters, urging them towards him. His last thoughts are of those on the White Pearl, dead... he asks the very same reef to take him, too... and the ocean takes him.
As oblivion claims him, he recites a final prayer.
White pearl black oceans | Reviewer: Arif | 9/19/09
My version of the review:
The intro lyrics are basically the whole story.
A lighthouse keeper who had spent most of his life by the sea, and was raised in his home, a lighthouse. Judging from the lyrics, he rarely goes down to town but when New Years eve came he thought about spending the night at town. In the town he met this beautiful woman, they fell in love and spent the night together and enjoyed a memorable moment. After that, someone attacked him. "I never had a chance to stop what hit me" he wasnt able to see his attacker and so he somewhat fainted from the attack. After long hours of unwilling sleep (fainted from the attack), he was awakened by a nightmare, he had forgottened to guide the ships from the lighthouse thus making them lose thier way and destroyed them. He killed the people on the ship that sailed the black ocean.And the woman was on the ship he ahd destroyed.
The next day, he was captured and sent to court. "Please tell me everything is alright", it seems that he didnt know what had happened and why he was brought there. The people in there looked at him with anger and disbelief because he did not know what had happened and why he was brought there. He felt scared and couldnt keep his tears and cried.
"All on the board the White Pearl have died!
Coastal reef has tolled their lives,
and you are the light of the night!"
The judge told him what had happened, he didnt remember anything before he fainted. But he could remember one thing of his attacker, he had the name of the woman he spent with last night tattoed to his arm. So his attacker somewhat had connections with the girl he spent the night with, maybe he was her husband because she was pregnant at that time, she decided to run away but then met this lighthouse keeper and fell inlove. This guy saw the light house keeper and his woman going through the door that had her name on it. This explains how he remembered he had seen the name on teh tattoo somewhere on a door. He was found not guilty and was released to become a free man. But he felt so full of guilt he hated himself, he wanted to commit suicide.
He thought that if he commited suicide the hatred of the people towards him would end. He hadnt knowned that one night in town could make his life a living hell. He climbed his 10000 round and round steps in the light house until he was at the top, and jumped off into the black ocean, he commited suicide.
"I hereby commit my body to the deep,
to be turned into corruption,
looking for the resurrection of the body,
when the Sea shall give up Her dead,
and the life of the world to come,
through our Lord.
Amen."
I'm still amazed at how beautiful SA song can be... | Reviewer: Lisa | 7/19/09
ok, there is this lighthouse keeper who leaves the lighthouse for one night on New Years Eve. He leaves the light on, and he knows the light will keep on shining for dome time (you know, you have to feed it every now and then, once you've fed it, it'll go on a few hours or sth like that). He goes in the town, meets this girl and spends the night with her.
She says she'll sail the following night, that is she'll sail on Jan 1st.
He then doesn't go back in time to the lighthouse, he falls asleep in the morning somewhere, so all during Jan 1st there is no-one to feed the light. And in that period of the year, it's dark almost the whole day, so it doesn't need to be midnight to be all dark: even if it's afternoon, it'll still be dead dark, so there's no light. And so the White Pearl sinks; the girl was on that ship: she died (she must have died, otherwise she would have been mentioned again during the song).
I think that thing about the tattoo is just a mean to make us understand that man was bound to the girl, probably he was her husband since the girl was pregnant.
then the keeper isn't sentenced to anything for the accident, he's free, he can go back to the lighthouse, But he can't live with the remorse, so he kills himself jumping into the ocean from the tower.
OTHER POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION:
another possibility is that the girl wasn't on the White Pearl, and the reason why he doesn't mention the girl in the rest of the song is that he knows she won't love him anymore: "No one can love a man who guarded the light one fateful night".
Actually I don't think this is the right one, because this doesn't explain the unborn child and the tattooed man.
The storyline | Reviewer: brian | 6/29/09
This story is about a lighthouse keeper.
All his life he has been living in a tower
the lighthouse is a night job so he can't spend time in the town during the night.
One night he decides to go to the town for new years eve figuring he will be back in to the lighthouse by nightfall.
But he is temted by a girl who promises him that she will be his forever("for that one night" is what he figured out later). he goes to bed with her and falls asleep.He wakes up in the morning and finds out there was no one in the tower to light the way for the ships in the night.
He runs back to the tower and finds out a ship has crushed on the cost and everybody died ("Coastal reef has tolled their lives").
Later on he finds out that he impragnented the women he had slept with. Because of that the courthouse decides not to kill him because he has a child coming.
(the father of her unborn child is him)
(I never saw the face,a name was inked in his arm ...) (The family name stated I had seen before ... written on her front door!) i think she or someone else that know he was there when he wasn't at his job to keep the light runing.
That brings us to sad ending of the story. He wants to kill himself because everybody hate and want him dead. she also dont see him self fit to be even be loved. he take a small boat to the reef)(The light will show me a way on the grisly reefs) then he jumps in the water. (10,000 steps down) note the lighthouse only had 101 steps. he is sinking in the the black ocean. tho b4 he dose he prays or maby on the way down he dose for the veary few last lines. note just some of my ideas and a bit of copying didnt wont to type all the same stuff couse i did think of some of the same stuff.
Just a clarification. | Reviewer: Drulle | 4/25/09
The man with the tattoo on his arm was the pregnant woman's husband. She was probably trying to get away from him (hence her finding a ship to escape / cheating on him with the lighthouse-keeper).
"A presence in the room we both could feel,
the father of her unborn child and me."
The woman's husband and the lighthouse-keeper can sense her spirit in the courthouse with them. The lighthouse-keeper DIDN'T get her pregnant in one night, rofl. xD At least no one would know about it if he had. That just ... wouldn't make any logical sense.
I can't tell what happens at the trial - but at some point the lightouse-keeper flees to his tower and stands at the top, near the edge,
"One step will take me back inside, another sees my end.
No one can love a man who guarded the light one fateful night ...
Flaming eyes I must confront before I am stated free."
He may have been presumed innocent, but he knows that no one will show him any kindness or respect since the incident with the White Pearl. He throws himself off the tower into the sea and dies, in order to "pay back" the people of the town and "end their hate".
Amazing song. Amazing amazing amazing.
The storyline | Reviewer: OmeRavid | 4/8/09
This story is about a lighthouse keeper.
All his life he has been living in a tower
the lighthouse is a night job so he can't spend time in the town during the night.
One night he decides to go to the town for new years eve figuring he will be back in to the lighthouse by nightfall.
But he is temted by a girl who promises him that she will be his forever("for that one night" is what he figured out later). he goes to bed with her and falls asleep.He wakes up in the morning and finds out there was no one in the tower to light the way for the ships in the night.
He runs back to the tower and finds out a ship has crushed on the cost and everybody died ("Coastal reef has tolled their lives").
Later on he finds out that he impragnented the women he had slept with. Because of that the courthouse decides not to kill him because he has a child coming.
(the father of her unborn child is him)
That brings us to sad ending of the story. He wants to kill himself because everybody hate and want him dead but he cant kill himself because he has a child on the way. so he has to live with the fact that he killed many people and everybody hate him.
Someone should make a movie from this song
title | Reviewer: Kakkonot | 3/29/09
My interpretation:
The shy lighthouse keeper has guided the ships his entire life, but being lonely he spends his new years eve on the town.
He meets the girl who wants to leave by ship the following night and they are having a night.
When he wakes he gets hit and passes away.
Hes got that nightmare of the blind ships.
Next time he wakes, he prays that the moon has guided the ships instead of him, but the people standing around him (likely came to see why he didnt prevent the ship from sinking) tell him the white pearl sank.
Then he remembers the Name. This is the only strange part, I think the inked Name is just a stilistic device to make the listeners know it was the husband of the girl who hit him.
Considering this part of the song, I think the girl wants to get away from her husband for any reason
(mby because of her unborn child) and leave over the sea. She goes with the lighthouse keeper and promises to be his for the night, to hide in his lighthouse until next night. The Husband finds the lighthouse when she is gone and hits the keeper, the white pears sinks and she dies on it.
The presence in the courthouse is her spirit/ghost and the keeper and the husband (=father of her unborn child) can feel it.
It would make sense that the husband is angry because the unborn child is not his own but the keepers,but the lines
--"A presence in the room, we BOTH could feel
The father of her unborn child AND me"--
implicate that its not.
And i dont think there is a 3rd guy.
Then he cant bear the blame of all the deaths and the hate of the people and jumps into the ocean
@Merric | Reviewer: Nikos | 3/26/09
I think i can clear things up a bit for you (everyone) on that part. Note as he refers to ships as 'sails of night'.
as an example:
Good morn', oh dreadful day,
I prayed the moon had lit the sea instead of me...
For the sails of night,
"Please tell me everything's alright..."
He prays that the moon has lit the way for ships that have sailed by in the night.
so She had found the sails, for the following night
The town, for her, was getting way too small
She promised to be mine
Forever, ...for that one night...
Means that the girl had found a ship to sail on for the next night. Because the town was getting boring. That's also why she promised to be his for only that one night, she wouldnt be there the next night.
'A presence in the room, we both could feel
The father of her unborn child and me'
Refers to a man that impregnated her and is still alive. My guess would be a boyfriend. Though having a tatoo of your own name does seem a bit strange... but i guess its possible that if they where the only 2 living in the house that they took the girls name as a family name. would explain her name on the door.
Quite a bit of text here :) hope it clears somethings up. Do note that this is MY interpretation of the song. Doesn't have to be the right one :) it just makes sense to me
@Lester | Reviewer: Merric | 3/20/09
I was thinkin on the same thing, my first thought was her father aswell, but then the line:
'A presence in the room, we both could feel
The father of her unborn child and me'
Made me suspect an other boyfried, tho another lines make it unlikely:
'A name was inked in his arm....'
'The family name stated i've seen before'
Why would a boyfriend ink the family name of her love in his arm? Maybe her firstname, but her family's name? On the contrary, why would the fater ink his own family's name in his arm??
The line which i cannot understand is that:
'She found the sails for the following night'
What's that suppose to mean? If it refers to the accident of the White Pearl, then it should be written 'She found the sails OF the following night'..But it would be way too early in the song..Any clues?
SA is my fav band for 6yrs now, and Winterheart's Guild is one of the best emotionally filled albums on Earth imo! Power metal and SA FTW!
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