Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
A character is introduced whose name is known but too fearful to speak or write.
In plain terms
An admiral arrives with a name that everyone knows but fears to say.
What can you take from it?
Fear can silence even the most common words.

Where it applies

  • reading adventure stories
  • discussing tyranny

Putting it to work

  • character analysis

Questions to consider

  • What names are feared in history?

Another view

It relies on the reader imagining the name.

More from Robert Southey

  1. Will ye believe The wonders of the ocean? how its shoals Sprang from the wave, like flashing light; .. took wing, And, twinkling with a silver glitterance, Fle…

    Permalink to quote #7
  2. Where Washington hath left His awful memory A light for after times!

    Permalink to quote #9
  3. Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock, 'Oh Christ! It is the Inchcape Rock!'

    Permalink to quote #6

Related quotes

  1. Hitler would go as white as a sheet and tightly clench his jaws, while his eyes would dilate. Everyone in his entourage would get panicky because these fits we…

    Theodor MorellTheodor Morell quote #1
  2. Ces deux moities de Dieu, le pape et l'empereur!

    Victor HugoVictor Hugo quote #1
  3. My so-called foreign friends do neither me nor the situation nor themselves any good when they try to bring me into opposition to the allegedly impossible Nati…

    Hjalmar SchachtHjalmar Schacht quote #1