Yes, it clears up a number of questions re the closing lines of the
poem. But the phrase, "the Gulf claims," still is a puzzle.
(Incidentally, "Gulf" can be a modifier of a noun; that's a peculiartiy
of English: nouns can modify nouns. Consider the phrse "French Spanish
teacher" -- i.e. a French woman who teaches Spanish, a "French teacher
of Spanish." There's even a 'rule' that no one needs to know because
everyone follows it: When a noun is modified by an adjective and a noun,
the word order is adjective-noun-noun.) But "claims of the Gulf" makes
no sense, so the grammar doesn't help us.

Carrol

Terry Traynor wrote:
> 
> Rick, this does answer the question I asked, and is informative.
>  Thanks.
> 
> Terry
> 
> On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 12:39 PM, Rickard A. Parker
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>      *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
>      >