abstract:"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 30 feet (five fathoms) deep, of the father of the character to whom the lines are addressed.
The characters are not meant to be "read" per se, but together with the work's title to provide the viewer with an immediate emotional response or impression, akin to viewing, say, a Jackson Pollock drip painting like "Full FathomFive" (1947).