[Intro] (piano alone, hushed, close-mic'd) The river's grey and the morning's thin I stand where the tide comes in [Verse 1] (soft, breathy, piano and a low string swell) Three masts thin in the winter haze I count the sails and I count the days A grey seal rose by the harbor wall And watched you go, and said nothing at all [Pre-Chorus] (building gently, strings rising) You carried a compass, a coat, a name And a promise to come back the same The wind takes hold, the shore grows thin I'll keep the lamp lit until you come in [Chorus] (soft, aching, close harmonies) Who wrote the names in the dark of the box? Who set the tide and who cut the locks? You're sailing on a letter I'll never read Godspeed, my love, to the land ahead [Verse 2] (warmer, brushed drums enter) You told me of a cape you named for the cod Of a shore that the mapmakers never trod Years you begged for a ship and a seal Now the wind is up and the die is real [Pre-Chorus] (building gently, strings rising) You carried a compass, a coat, a name And a promise to come back the same The wind takes hold, the shore grows thin I'll keep the lamp lit until you come in [Chorus] (soft, aching, close harmonies) Who wrote the names in the dark of the box? Who set the tide and who cut the locks? You're sailing on a letter I'll never read Godspeed, my love, to the land ahead [Bridge] (hushed, almost whispered, piano and one held note) Red wax pressed on a cedar lid Names within that no one's seen They'll break it open when the land appears And I'll be here in the years between [Instrumental Break — signature moment] (clean, reverb-soaked guitar with long sustained bends rises out of the strings like a swell out of fog, swelling into full orchestra and ending on one open chord that hangs) [Verse 3] (softer, still, time passing) A letter came with the spring tide in Fever, it said, and a cannon's din They buried you where the rivers run deep And the thing you started is theirs to keep [Pre-Chorus] (rising, key lift begins) You carried a compass, a coat, a name And a promise to come back the same The wind takes hold, the shore grows thin I'll keep the lamp lit for the ones who begin [Final Chorus] (fuller, hopeful, harmonies opening wide, key lift) I read the letter by the harbor light Now I know what was sealed that night A hundred hearts and a land to be Godspeed, my love, you were brave for me [Outro] (fading, piano and voice, strings falling away) The grey seal slips beneath the tide The ships are gone, the land is wide Godspeed, godspeed
