Full fathom five (catchphrase)

"Full fathom five" is a catchphrase deriving from a verse passage, beginning with those words, in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Its original context, during a storm and shipwreck.

“	Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell Hark! Now I hear them – Ding-dong, bell.	”
	— William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I, Sc. II

This three-word phrase has been repeatedly used in English-language culture, alone or in the context of larger parts or the whole of the passage, or referred to via abridgements of it, over the four centuries since its composition.

• Large portions
  • The whole of the stanza was set for choir by Ralph Vaughan Williams as one of his Three Shakespeare Songs.
  • Martin Amis's quotation of most of "Full Fathom Five", in his novel The Pregnant Widow', is among its many Shakespeare references.
  • "The Fathom Five Matter" is a five-episode case in the radio serial Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; it uses the poem in full in the first episode.
  • May Sinclair's Mary Olivier: a life contains (in Book Three "Adolescence", chapter viii) the first six lines of the song^[1]
  • Much of the poem itself, including "Full fathom five" is used in the song "Blue Lagoon" by Laurie Anderson
  • The stanza is quoted in, and provides the title for, the Doctor Who audio drama Full Fathom Five
  • Used in the Interlude ("The Investigator") between chapters three and four of "Cibola Burn" - book 4 of 'The Expanse' series by James_S._A._Corey
  • Laurie Anderson's 1984 album Mister Heartbreak includes the track Blue Lagoon which contains the second stanza starting "Full fathom five thy father lies ..." but replaces the end line "Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong. Hark! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell." with "And I alone am left to tell the tale. Call me Ishmael."
• First clause
  • James Joyce's Ulysses contains the clause "Full fathom five thy father lies"
  • Stephen King uses the clause "Full fathom five my father lies" in The Tommyknockers when protagonist James "Gard" Gardner sees a demonstration of a special typewriter.
  • John Cheever uses the clause "full fathom five my father lies" towards the end of the short story "Goodbye, My Brother".
• The phrase
  • Sting's song "Pirate's Bride" uses the phrase in the line, "Full fathom five my true love lies."
  • "Full fathom five" is the opening line to the song "Anchor Me" by The Mutton Birds.
  • Full Fathom Five is the title of a 1947 painting by Jackson Pollock, containing dark blues that evoke the depths of the ocean.
  • Full Fathom Five is the title of the B-side to the Stone Roses' 1988 single Elephant Stone
  • Full Fathom Five is the title of a 1994 album by British band Sub Sub
  • Full Fathom Five is the title of the 1965 book by John Stewart Carter which won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award.
  • Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible refers to the poem' following the news of the death of patriarchal character Nathan Price.
  • Edgar Freemantle's psychologist in Stephen King's Duma Key sinks "full fathom five" into his sofa.
  • Protagonist, Gordon Comstock, of George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying "was in the soup, full fathom five" (with reference to the loss of his job, and unravelling of his life)
  • "Full fathom five" are the opening spoken lyrics of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich's song, "The Wreck of the 'Antoinette'".
  • The song "Big News I" by American rock band Clutch contains the line "She's sunk full fathom, five, five, five." A live album by the band is also called Full Fathom Five.
  • Full Fathom Five is a 1958 poem by Sylvia Plath.
  • The phrase "Full fathom five" appears in Nadine Gordimer's 1999 short story "Loot".
  • Full Fathom Five is a 2014 novel by Max Gladstone.
• Part of the phrase
  • "Five Fathoms", a 1999 song by Everything but the Girl
  • The boat at the center of the five-episode case "The Fathom Five Matter", in Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, is named the Fathom Five.
  • Fathom Five National Marine Park is a largely underwater national park in Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada.

References

1. May Sinclair, p.111, Mary Olivier, The Macmillan Company, 1919

See also

• Sea Change
• Rich and Strange
• List of titles of works based on Shakespearean phrases