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, is the drowning, in water about 5 fathoms (30 feet; 9 metres) deep, of the father of the character to whom the lines are addressed and the physical metamorphosis that follows.

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.
  • The stanza was set to music and used as lyrics for the track "Full Fathom Five" on Marianne Faithfull's 1965 album Come My Way
  • "Full Fathom Five" is an episode from the first season of the TV series Hawaii Five-O; a character recites the poem in full (albeit with a couple of misquotations) during the episode.
  • May Sinclair's Mary Olivier: a life contains (in Book Three "Adolescence", chapter viii) the first six lines of the song[1]
  • 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."
  • The whole of the stanza was also set for Unaccompanied Choir by Michael McDermott in 1999 as part of his "Festival of The Sea" Suite. The work was performed in that year's Mountbatten Festival of Music at The Royal Albert Hall, London by a choir made up from students at The Royal Marines School Of Music in Portsmouth, UK.
  • Opening lines in the French film "Paris Belongs To Us".
• 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".
  • Luke Rhinehart uses the clause "full fathom five my father lies" in The Dice Man, when side character Eric Cannon is asked by the protagonist if he wants to remain present during an interview with his parents that leads to Eric's commitment to a mental hospital.
  • Sting's song "Pirate's Bride" uses the modified clause "Full fathom five my true love lies".
  • The Streets' song "None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive" from the mixtape of the same name, uses the clause in the song's hook.
• The phrase
  • "Full fathom five" is the opening line to the song "Anchor Me" by the New Zealand band The Mutton Birds, written by Don McGlashan
  • 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.
  • Gordon Comstock, protagonist 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 "Another Night Out" by UNKLE contains the lyrics "Drowning to die, down four fathom five."
  • 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.
  • "Shake, Shudder, Shiver", a song from the Faces' album First Step, includes the lines "There's a man wants to show me the river / Full fathom five, I'll be more dead than alive"
  • "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.
  • "Full Fathom Five" is the title of Episode 1, Season 1[2] of the original Hawaii Five-O.
  • "Full Fathom Five" is the title of Episode 21, Season 2 of Movin' On.
  • "Full fathom five, the Kid is alive!" is a line used in the song Tomahawk Kid by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
  • "Full Fathom Five" is the title of a 2017 album by Scottish musician Simon J. Crawford.
  • "Full fathom five" is spoken by Ernie at the Lodge bar in Episode 3, Season 1 of the AMC television show, Lodge 49. It is also the title of the season 1 finale.
  • "Full Fathom Five" is the title of Episode 21 in the 1952 TV history series - Victory At Sea - The history of the U.S. Navy during World War II.
  • "Full Fathom Five" is the title of a song in Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (2019) used in a zone fittingly named "The Tempest". The song is composed by Masayoshi Soken.
• Part of the phrase
  • Fathom Five is a 1979 novel by Robert Westall, a sequel to his 1975 young adult novel The Machine Gunners .
  • "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.