Atlantis

The lyrics first present Atlantis as a vast, advanced civilization whose people traveled widely and whose culture supposedly influenced later societies and myths. They then shift from grand claims about the ancient world to a personal, longing refrain: the speaker wants to find a beloved figure “way down below the ocean.” The mood moves between celebratory—urging people to sing and welcome something new—and wistful, as the speaker wonders where the beloved has gone.

Several images connect the two parts. “Way down below the ocean” places Atlantis in a distant, unreachable world, but it may also express emotional distance or a desire to escape ordinary life. “My antediluvian baby” means a beloved from before the Flood; the playful phrase turns an ancient idea into an intimate term of affection. The “Twelve” are described through varied roles—poet, physician, farmer, scientist, magician—suggesting a group carrying different kinds of knowledge and skill.

The song can be heard as a fanciful celebration of a lost civilization, but its confident-sounding story is not presented with evidence in the lyrics, so it may also be playful mythmaking. The repeated wish to see the beloved leaves the ending unresolved: she may be imagined as Atlantis itself, someone associated with that lost world, or simply a person the speaker misses.