House By The Sea Lyrics - Iron & Wine

I think it's very possible that he could be talking about a couple things. He mentions often in his music "troubled thoughts" and sadness in a kind of delicate poetry. It's possible that he is meditating on the meaning of his life and previous experience with the church (which he seems to have mixed or negative feelings about--"burning the book"). Drug use? Yeah maybe..? He refers to too much smoking and jealous sisters (which in one translation is heroin and cocaine). I think primarily he is wrestling with his own thoughts and trying to make some decision.

This song is not about drugs. This song is very similar thematically to many Middle English dream visions. The house is the house of God and the ocean / moat between the speaker and the house is the limbo between life on the land and death's infinite life in the house on the other side. This song is about how once one accepts and celebrates death, one begins the swim from human live to one that is spiritually heading closer to the house of God.

This song is obviously about a burgeoning drug addiction. The jealous sisters are heroin and cocaine. Durp. But..people will try their hardest to make the meaning they lack ;)

I think, that this is a song about the habitual use of speed or cocaine with heroin. Otherwise known as a speed ball. The sister that's lying on the floor is heroin the paranoid one, who's changing the locks on the door is cocaine. They essentially cancel each other's negative effects out when taken together. Too much of one, not enough of the other is unpleasant that's the jealous sisters metaphor. the line "Blankets to bleed on".. well, a blanket is a joint laced with whatever, so.. maybe he's been selling to support his habit/time on his knees. That he dreams of every night.

Not to shoot down anyone else's review, but I think there's a little too much reading into it. There's no anti-war message unless you want there to be one, and it seems silly to say that that the sisters are one woman - if that was the case, why didn't Samuel Beam just write about one woman?

I personally feel a strong connection with this song, as my relationship with my sister is often strained by jealousy, and my mother's lover (who feels more like a father than my biological one) lives on another continent. It's almost like his song to us (ignoring the sexual connotations between the singer and the sisters, of course). The line "I've been swimming to them in my sleep" is particularly poignant.

Like much of Iron and Wine's music, this song appears to be more-or-less, a fable-turned-song, up to the interpretation of each individual who hears it.

For as long as I can remember, I've dreamed of a green-eyed beauty with Blonde/Black hair. Every time I dream of her, I'm filled with a euphoric sense more intense than any mind-altering substance I've ever encountered. But at the same time am filled with dread. This House by the Sea actually depicts my dream home. I live in a very beautiful climate, seperated from the ocean by a lot of islands. My wish is to be burried on a cliff overlooking this magnificant masterpiece of God. This "Green-eyes" has endured so much pain, and changes the locks as a nessesary safety precaution, due to a past life. I've been searching for her my entire life. I'm in love with a dream... lol! I only have eyes for this women, and I will probably crawl through the end of the world just to know her before I die.


I had a dream and Googled "house by the sea." this was the third page on the list... Coincidence? Or God's will?

to me this seems to be about conflicted feelings in a relationship. he loves her, he's chained by her. the sisters are one woman. she feels the same way: wants to change the locks on her doors so he can't get back, but also laid out on the floor from pain because of their conflict.

I can't believe that some of you really can't see the REAL meaning of the song!?
it's about guy who's trapped. and this 'house by the sea', i think it's more meant like some kind of wickedly pulling feeling - aura. and you can totally understand this song by this line "And I've been buying the time on my knees". like HE should allways pray for permission to do something, and only these 'sisters'(life) can give him permission.
i see this song as - no matter how beautiful & 'deliciously smelling' life can be, it cost us more pain than joy. we won't even realize when we already have been captured, that the life has locked us in it, and we can't runaway from life. that, obviously, life is some kind of gift, we all must appreciate it, no matter how hard it is - we can't runaway!
believe me, i'm not the most religious person in the universe, but somehow - these lyrics make me think this way.
but i must agree - lyrics and song matches so good together!

(don't hate me - these are only my thoughts and vision about lyrics meaning)

I always thought it was more about religion, but I don't really know, which is why I came here to see what other people think.

Here are some reasons why...

"I've been making the meaning they lack
I've been burning the book they come back to"

Maybe he has found a deeper meaning to life through some other way besides "the book" that his sisters use to try, perhaps unsuccessfully, to find meaning in. He tries to make the point to them that they don't need "the book" to find meaning. That there are other ways to find meaning, and in fact they haven't found meaning through "the book" and yet they keep going back to it thinking or hoping that they will find meaning in it.

Maybe the line about being laid on the floor is about being depressed, lost, etc. Maybe the line about changing hte locks on the door is about the ways in which the other sister is "changing the locks" on her own door, i.e. the door to herself. Maybe she keeps putting up walls to keep people out. Maybe she keeps coming up with excuses for why she needs to continue following "the book".

And perhaps too in the line about "Buying their time on my knees", makes me think of prayer. "Selling their blankets to bleed on", maybe some metaphor I'm missing.

The whole end of the song makes me think that there is a struggle between him and his sisters about religion. That he perhaps has become displeased with the religion and the Church he was brought up with, but his sisters still hold it very dear to themselves. Maybe there is a struggle between him and his sisters to love each other and disagree with each other so strongly about something so important to them.

"And I've been living to run where they led"
maybe blindly following the church?

"And I've been dying to rise from their bed"

"And I've been sparing my neck from their chain"
maybe letting go of the chains of the church that was suffocating him?

"And they've been changing the sound of my name"
maybe his sisters have some anger towards him regarding leaving the church?

"And I've been swimming to them in my sleep"
Maybe his desire to connect and to be close to his sisters?

"And I've been dreaming our love and our freedom"
Straight forward, he wants their love and he wants to love them, and he wants all of them to be free.

Maybe it's not about any sisters at all, the sisters can be anyone, or everyone really. Maybe the sisters are actually a part of himself that he struggles with. No matter what, though, I think the song is about struggling with a religion that he grew up with.

I'm interested to hear what other people have to say about it...and maybe we (I) are (am) looking for too much meaning it. Maybe it is just a song, but I have a feeling it's more than just a song about a house by the sea.

I don't believe this is about war whatsoever. Its a story song, or maybe a memory that the artist has of a place he misses. I don't see any anti-war intentions here beyond the references about bleeding, smoke, and our love and freedom. Even then I think its still a stretch. This song has a lot of longing in it. I think he just misses something, it may not even be a specific place. It might be a specific feeling, something he may never have again, or something/some one he will never return to again.

That, however, is what is so great about music. I'm sure this song means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But only Sam Beam really knows what it means.

That all being said I think everyone here can agree that it is a beautiful song, very dark, and I love every note and word of it. This song broke me in to "The Shepherd's Dog." Meaning that I really wouldn't listen to anything else on this album but this for awhile. I wasn't too sure about the new direction of Sam's music. I love it now.

Sorry for such a long comment.

does it seem too blunt and simple to say that this song is simply about a house by the sea?i believe there is some rivalry between these "sisters", refering to the laying on the floor and the locks on the door. The singer obviosly loves both the house and these so called sisters very much but for some reason he feels he cannot return... I just don't see what this has to do with wars and politics. Perhaps a war between the sisters and/or him? Label me stupid and ship me to china, but other interpretations are maybe a bit too insightful.

i don't really understand this song all thay much. while it is absolutely astonishingly beautiful, the lyrics are a little fuzzy to me. could someone explain how this is anti-war? i don't mean to be rude, i just don't really see it.

House By the Sea is a beautiful song, I love how the lyrics and the music go together so well. The anti-war message is expressed poignantly and subtlely which gives it much more meaning than if it were demanding, blunt, or angry.