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
> >
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