Know something about this song or lyrics?
Add it to our wiki.
The lesson you'd do well not to forget
Your life could be the one it's wisdom saves
At sea, where you're beleaguered and beset
On every side by strife of wind and waves
Despite the best of maps and the bravest men
For all their mighty names and massive forms
There'll never be and has never been
A ship or fleet secure against the storms
When kings upon the main have clung to pride
And held themselves as masters of the sea
I've held them down beneath the crushing tide
Till they have learned that no one masters me
But grace can still be found within the gale
With fear and reverence, raise your ragged sail
Your life could be the one it's wisdom saves
At sea, where you're beleaguered and beset
On every side by strife of wind and waves
Despite the best of maps and the bravest men
For all their mighty names and massive forms
There'll never be and has never been
A ship or fleet secure against the storms
When kings upon the main have clung to pride
And held themselves as masters of the sea
I've held them down beneath the crushing tide
Till they have learned that no one masters me
But grace can still be found within the gale
With fear and reverence, raise your ragged sail
Lyrics submitted by Mortisfacio3, edited by thereisafire
Track duration: 04:56
"Kings Upon the Main" as written by Edward Carrington Breckenridge, James Riley Breckenridge, Dustin Michael Kensrue, Teppei Teranishi
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
It is important to learn that no matter how great I think I am, I am mortal and death is unconquerable. However, if there is love and faith, then life is worth living.
We are beggars all..
People have clung to pride and have claimed to have the best ways to live your life, even taking risks (the maps and bravest men)
remember people have tried to master life, the way things are but no one has really ever been secure against the problems life gives us, no matter how many people they have backing them up, a ship or a fleet (against the storms).
When people have tried to say they know the secret to happiness and claim they have the way to be happy, I've held them down and made them realize there's no happiness without God in your life. (no one masters me)
But grace can still be found within the gale(You can be forgiven for the trials and failures of life), with fear and reverence(of God), raise your ragged sail(live your life for him).
God loves Thrice, because these lyrics are like crack to my ears.
I'm glad that you mentioned the meaning of "the main", Mortisfacio, because I would have had you not. :)
That said, I do believe this song to be much more about the sea than about God. Though I do see why one could argue that it is about God, the most important thing I pick out is nature's insistence that man cannot, and will not, ever truly overcome it. Water, in general, is an interesting thing to symbolize, given that there are so many different aspects one could mention. In some works, water is generally depicted as peaceful and loving; indeed, astrologically, people of the element water tend to be the most emotional and the most caring. However, water is also depicted as being terrible and unforgiving (which also corresponds to the negative aspect of water people- though they tend to be slow to anger, their fury is frightening when it comes). I think it's very interesting how Dustin chose to characterize each of the elements used here- fire is warning, water unforgiving, air hurt, and earth is rather melancholy. And all of them have more or less the same thing to say: mankind should not try to control nature; when they do, everything goes wrong, and they only end up destroying nature (and usually themselves).
I like that the melodies of all four are more or less the same as well- they're simply changed a bit to reflect their particular elements. It's very fitting, as the lyrics tend to do the same thing. That is, though they're very different, they do all seem to make similar points. This is a very effective way of tying this whole project together.