*Running* is a sailing term (remember Eliot was a sailor) that means
sailing with the wind blowing from the stern to the bow. I thus read
the passage somewhat as follows:
Gull [flying] against the wind, in the windy straits
of Belle Isle, or [the gull flying with the wind] [on/at] the Horn,
If this doesn't answer the question you asked please reply. I'm off
to other things right now.
Also note the Damyata section of TWL where there is a bit of ambiguity
with the word *beating*. "Beating heart" is somewhat obvious but
*beating* is another sailing term (and Eliot writes of a boat,
responding, and controlling hands.) Beating is sailing against the
wind where, with proper control of the boat, the sailor zig-zags
at angles to the wind to progress againt it.
Regards,
Rick Parker
>>
>> Is it the same gull at Belle Isle as at the Horn (as I imagine)? I
>> picture
>> the same gull because then we have a creature that knows when to fight
>> and
>> when to go with the flow.
>>
>
>
> I think I understand about fighting and flowing, but I'm not sure. Are
> you
> suggesting that the lines be read not with the wind as the subject of
> "running" --- not as:
>
>
>
> Gull against the wind,
>
> (1) [blowing] in the windy straits
>
> (2) or running on the Horn
>
>
>
> --- but rather with "Gull" as the subject of "running":
>
>
>
> Gull
>
> (3) [fighting] against the wind, in the windy straits / Of Belle Isle
>
> (4) or running on [flowing with] the Horn
>
>
>
> I'm offering the possibility of (2) without knowing what it would mean for
> a
> wind to be "running on." But I'm also unsure about whether in (4), a gull
> "running on" would mean that it's "going with the flow."
>
> Terry
>
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