Punch Brothers' "Another New World"

Last month (the last day of the year, actually), I listened to Punch Brothers' Ahoy! EP.  I'd listened to it only a few times before, so listening to it then was the first time I really caught the name "Annabel Lee" in "Another New World."  The only other "Annabel Lee" I know of is the Edgar Allan Poe poem, so when I listened to Ahoy! a few weeks ago for my Collection Audit project, I transcribed the lyrics and compared them to the Poe poem.  The situations in each poem are different, but there are enough similarities to make me think that the song (written by Josh Ritter) took at least some inspiration from Poe.

In Poe's poem, there's the recurring line "In this kingdom by the sea," and "Another New World" is about maritime exploration.  There are lines about "set[ting] the course north" and "study[ing] the charts" to find "another new world at the top of the world."  In the song, Annabel Lee is a ship, and in the poem, she's "a maiden," but the connection between an Annabel Lee and the sea is a significant one in both works.

The speaker in the poem mentions the "love that was more than love" that he had with Annabel Lee, and the same sort of thing seems to be in the song.  The singer/speaker calls the Annabel Lee "the most beautiful ship in the sea."  Together, they're "happy to think back on all we had done," and he stays in "the loving embrace of her hold."

Both speakers are eventually separated from their respective Annabel Lees by means that are somewhat similar.  In the poem, "the wind came out of the cloud by night, / Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee," and in the song, the Annabel Lee is trapped in the ice and snow of the arctic.  The singer/speaker has to use "her mainsail for timber" and says he "burned her to keep me alive."  The cold is what does both of them in, either directly or because it leads to something worse.

Nevertheless, both speakers dream about Annabel Lee after her demise.  The speaker of the poem says that "the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee," and the singer/speaker of the song explains that "sometimes at night in my dreams comes the singing of some unknown tropical bird / And I smile in my sleep thinking Annabel Lee's finally made it to another new world."

Aside from the narrative, there are also some similarities in the poetic elements (although that doesn't really demonstrate Poe's influence in particular).  Both have some lines (or parts of lines) that have repetitive sounds.  There's alliteration with Gs in "So I said, 'All I got, all my guts, and my God'" in "Another New World," and in "Annabel Lee," there's some alliteration with Ls in "And this maiden she lived with no other thought / Than to love and be loved by me" and "we loved with a love that was more than love."  There's some internal rhyme in "the waves that once lifted her sifted instead into drifts against Annabel's side" in "Another New World," and in "Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee" in "Annabel Lee."  I should note that I'm quoting from my own (possibly incorrect) transcription.  I did look up some other transcriptions, but I thought their accuracy questionable.

Punch Brothers' "Rye Whiskey"

Back in May, I watched the Punch Brothers live at the House of Blues via WGBH.  During "Rye Whiskey," I noticed the lines "Oh boy, rye whiskey makes the sun set faster / Makes the spirit more willing / But the body weaker."  I realized that this is an allusion to the Bible.

It's actually in two different places in the Bible, but the verse is the same: "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41 and Mark 14:38).  Jesus says this to the disciples after they fall asleep while Jesus is praying alone in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It seems like "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak" has become a pretty common expression, but I think "Rye Whiskey" illustrates a deeper familiarity since the next line is "Because rye sleep isn’t good sleep, boys."  The particular weakness of the Biblical "the flesh is weak" is falling asleep, which "Rye Whiskey" also mentions.  In fact, "Rye Whiskey" seems to go even a step further and say that it "isn't good sleep."  It's not only the weakness of a body that's weary; it's the weakness of a body that's weary but can achieve only a fitful sleep because of the effects of rye whiskey.