Vocab in the Classics: To the Immortal Memory of the Halibut
I came across 18th century poet William Cowper in the Slate article “Why are William Cowper’s poems so witty?”
For instance, this one (source):
TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY OF THE HALIBUT ON WHICH I DINED THIS DAY
WHERE hast thou floated, in what seas pursued
Thy pastime? when wast thou an egg new-spawn’d,
Lost in th’ immensity of ocean’s waste?
Roar as they might, the overbearing winds
That rock’d the deep, thy cradle, thou wast safe”
And in thy minikin and embryo state,
Attach’d to the firm leaf of some salt weed,
Didst outlive tempests, such as wrung and rack’d
The joints of many a stout and gallant bark,
And whelm’d them in the unexplor’d abyss.
Indebted to no magnet and no chart,
Nor under guidance of the polar fire,
Thou wast a voyager on many coasts,
Grazing at large in meadows submarine,
Where flat Batavia just emerging peeps
Above the brine,”where Caledonia’s rocks
Beat back the surge,”and where Hibernia shoots
Her wondrous causeway far into the main.
”Wherever thou hast fed, thou little thought’st,
And I not more, that I should feed on thee.
Peace therefore, and good health, and much good fish,
To him who sent thee! and success, as oft
As it descends into the billowy gulph,
To the same drag that caught thee!”Fare thee well!
Thy lot thy brethern of the slimy fin
Would envy, could they know that thou wast doom’d
To feed a bard, and to be prais’d in verse.
There’s plenty to dive into here, vocabulary-wise, but how about this:
Didst outlive tempests, such as wrung and rack’d
The joints of many a stout and gallant bark
The noble halibut, even as a tiny “embryo”, was able to cling to plants and thus outlive tempests, or storms, such as those that “wrung and racked” (that is, tossed about) “the joints of many a stout and gallant bark.”
Today, we often use stout to mean “fat,” but it also means “strong of body; hearty; sturdy.”
Gallant often means “chivalrous” (of a man towards a woman), but can also mean “brave, spirited, noble-minded.”
And finally, a bark, as used here, is “a sailing vessel having three or more masts, square-rigged on all but the aftermost mast, which is fore-and-aft-rigged.”
Thy lot thy brethern of the slimy fin
Would envy, could they know that thou wast doom’d
To feed a bard, and to be prais’d in verse.
In other words, the fish on which the poet just dined — its brothers (of the “slimy fin” fraternity) would envy its lot (or fortune) if they knew that this fish were doomed to feed the poet and to be immortalized in poetry, as of course all fish really want.
A bard, of course, is “a person who composed and recited epic or heroic poems, often while playing the harp, lyre, or the like” or any poet.
(By the way, why write a post about an 18th century poet? Oh, just for the halibut.)