The Sea Pictures are five lyrics by various authors set to music for contralto and orchestra by Sir Edward Elgar and brought together as one 'cycle.' They are also brought together by the delicate, remote feeling of the poems, which have the sea more as a background than as a spectacular object, and by the sensitive, thoughtful music.
In Haven uses the metaphors of nature for an expression of faith in the power of love to withstand the storms of life, and it is worth noticing that it is the joint expression of a husband and wife, for the late Lady Elgar wrote the poem.
Where Corals Lie expresses the longing we have all at times felt for the blue seas and white surf of some distant island.

These songs come from a collection that represents one of the happiest of recent discoveries in music. This we owe to Mrs. Kennedy-Fraser, who has spent many years necking for folk-music among the islands of the West of Scotland, where ancient songs are kept alive by the present-day folk, songs of labour and of joy which they sing as they go about their daily toil and gather in the evening about the fireside. Some wonderful inspirations, beautiful, strong and expressive, have been brought to us by Mrs. Kennedy-Fraser from this far-off land of romance and wildness.