“A Drop in the Ocean” by Ron Pope

Song of the Week 

“A Drop in the Ocean” by Ron Pope is a song that encompases a theme of desperation and passion. The song was popular during its release in 2007 hitting 19th place on the Billboard charts. It is the song of the week because lyricaly the song is clever and metaphorical in all the right ways. Overall, the song is about heartbreak right before it happens. You can see that huge tsunami wave rushing towards you and you know it is gonna hit but you are still going to do anything in your power to stop it. Let’s go right into decoding this song with the chorus.

He starts with, “A drop in the ocean / A change in the whether / I was praying you and me might end up together.” The first two lines start out ambiguous. Think of a vast ocean, then think of how much a single drop from that ocean matters in the scheme of things. He is talking about the feeling of love slipping through his fingers. There is nothing that he can do because he knows nothing matters enough to make a difference. The third line gives a more specific reference to the songs meaning. This being the hope of things working out and that feeling through the song transforms into digging an endless tunnel that goes nowhere. “It’s like wishing for rain as I stand in the desert / But i’m holding you closer than most ’cause you are my heaven.” You can hear the back and forth in his words. I love her I should stay, but I am miserable so I need to go. Comparing himself to being lost in the desert with no water elaborates on how intense this pain is for him.

The first verse turns away from the ambiguous chorus and gets straight to the point. “If you don’t love me, pretend / … / It’s too late to cry / too broken to move on, ” His partner does not love him anymore and I think deep down he knows he has fallen out of love as well but he can’t admit it to himself. It is terrifying trying to leave a long-term relationship. Especially, leave someone you could see a future with and have children with. It’s like giving up on a dream. He had his whole future planned out and now when he looks to the future it is a blank canvas.

Moving onto the second verse, “New England as the leaves change / The last excuse that i’ll claim / I was a boy who loved a woman like a little girl.” In this verse we can see time passing by and him getting closer to acceptance. He starts using words like last and the past tense loved. The last line is poetically written and combines so many ideas into one statement. He is admitting to some of the blame for the relationship ending, demoting himself from acting like a man to acting like a boy. He pushes his immaturity in the relationship to the forefront claiming it as one of the many reasons for it going sour. This act ironically shows his maturity through the fact he can admit he was part of the problem.

Lastly, The bridge can be taken two ways. He is either backsliding right into the relationship or It is him seeing heaven in things other than her. He sings, “Heaven doesn’t seem far away anymore.” This could be him finally filling in that blank canvas he used to see in front of him. Comment what you think it is! In the end, He is consumed by this dread of leaving but he knows he needs to in order to be happy.