Once fishing was a rabbit's foot-- O wind blow cold, O wind blow hot, Let suns stay in or suns step out: Life danced a jig on the sperm-whale's spout-- The fisher's fluent and obscene Catches kept his conscience clean.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The fisher lived a lively, chaotic life guided by instinct rather than strict conscience.
- In plain terms
- A fisherman lived freely with a clear mind despite rough conditions.
- What can you take from it?
- Instinct can guide a life cleanly even in rough circumstances.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can instinct be a moral compass?
- How do we find peace in chaos?
Another view
The description romanticizes a potentially dangerous lifestyle.
More from Robert Lowell
A brackish reach of shoal off Madaket-- The sea was still breaking violently and night Had steamed into our North Atlantic Fleet, When the drowned sailor clutc…
Permalink to quote #1
Related quotes
Why do you paint? For exactly the same reason I breathe. That's not an answer. There isn't any answer. How long hasn't there been any answer? As long as I can …
E. E. CummingsE. E. Cummings quote #9 They darted down and rose up like a wave Or buzzed impetuously as before; One would have thought the corpse was held a slave To living by the life it bore!
Allen TateAllen Tate quote #1 Death is an angel with two faces: To us he turns A face of terror, blighting all things fair; The other burns With glory of the stars, and love is there.
Theodore Chickering WilliamsTheodore Chickering Williams quote #2