Should pale death, with treble dread, make the ocean caves our bed... (2025)

In the movie The Lighthouse (2019), Willem Dafoe's character said this when making a toast: "Should pale death, with treble dread, make the ocean caves our bed, God who hears the surges roll deign to save our suppliant soul."

I have a vague idea what it means but I'm not 100% sure. Can somebody enlighten me on this?

Thank you!

Florentia52 said:

It would be helpful if you would explain which parts are confusing you. You're asking about a total of four lines of verse, and we don't want to spend time explaining things you already understand.

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I actually don't understand the whole thing. I think "...God who hears the surges roll deign to save our suppliant soul." means he hopes that God will help him when desperate times come.

This is a slightly changed version of the last verse of a poem by Lydia Sigourney, published in 1845, as part of a book of sea-related poetry called The Sea and the Sailor (although a later edition was published as Poems for the Sea.) The full poem may be read here:
Poems for the Sea/Hymn at Parting - Wikisource, the free online library

Each stanza of the poem asks God to help sailors in different situations. The final situation is death: the ship has been lost at sea, and everyone on it has drowned. Instead of being buried, the sailor's bodies lie on the ocean floor. The poet asks that even in that situation God will deign (look the word up if you don't know it...) to save the souls of those who pray to God for mercy ("suppliant soul.")

GreenWhiteBlue said:

This is a slightly changed version of the last verse of a poem by Lydia Sigourney, published in 1845, as part of a book of sea-related poetry called The Sea and the Sailor. The full poem may be read here:
Poems for the Sea/Hymn at Parting - Wikisource, the free online library

Each stanza of the poem asks God to help sailors in different situations. The final situation is death: the ship has been lost at sea, and everyone on it has drowned. Instead of being buried, the sailor's bodies lie on the ocean floor. The poet asks that even in that situation God will deign (look the word up if you don't know it...) to save the souls of those who pray to God for mercy ("suppliant soul.")

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Now how did you know that? How did you happen to know of Sigourney?

GreenWhiteBlue said:

This is a slightly changed version of the last verse of a poem by Lydia Sigourney, published in 1845, as part of a book of sea-related poetry called The Sea and the Sailor. The full poem may be read here:
Poems for the Sea/Hymn at Parting - Wikisource, the free online library

Each stanza of the poem asks God to help sailors in different situations. The final situation is death: the ship has been lost at sea, and everyone on it has drowned. Instead of being buried, the sailor's bodies lie on the ocean floor. The poet asks that even in that situation God will deign (look the word up if you don't know it...) to save the souls of those who pray to God for mercy ("suppliant soul.")

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Great research! I Googled but couldn't find this, though I suspected a 19th century source.

This verse follows the pattern of the ubiquitous children's prayer

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

It's a standard prayer format.

I am curious about the dialogue, if you say vaguely Shakespearean plus 19th century plus ocean adventure, it has to be filtered by through Moby Dick as well.

bennymix said:

Now how did you know that? How did you happen to know of Sigourney?

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I'd love to say "But doesn't everyone know about Sigourney?", but the real answer is superior Googling skills.

GreenWhiteBlue said:

"But doesn't everyone know about Sigourney?"

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To which I would have replied, "Yes, wasn't she the woman in "Alien"?"

God,
who hears the surges roll, - who hears the sea move
deign to save - condescend (subjunctive) to save
our suppliant soul." - our soul which prays for that salvation humbly and earnestly

I like Collins, here:

deign /deɪn/ vb

1. (intransitive) to think it fit

Donzu11 said:

, but how about the first part: "Should pale death, with treble dread, make the ocean caves our bed"

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Note that the original line is "Should pale death with arrow dread/ Make the ocean caves our bed/ Though no eye of love might see/ Where that shrouded grave shall be,/ Thou! who hear'st the surges roll,/ Deign to save the suppliant soul."

The concept of death is personified here as a pale warrior who kills us with an arrow. Death and sleep are often compared to each other, and the poet here is comparing death to an eternal sleep, and graves to a bed. In this case, the sailors have drowned at sea, and instead of being buried in graves on land where those who love them can see and visit their graves, the "bed" for their eternal sleep is the unseen floor of the ocean, and ocean caves.