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

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 feels like I laid there for days, or maybe for months
Oh, but Annabelle held me, the two of us happy
Just to think back on all we had done

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