The Anathemata
The Lady of the Pool (continued)
And other sharp exchanges
both sides the Pillars, as:
out come the Spagonies to dare and display in the wider plazza of the briny, and the Geeses with the looking-eye in both bows—goodish Sea-Peoples, both.5 Then looms up the Lilies to gilda the thirty-five leagues, and next, and now in the chops, the jack-o-lantern sea-marks of those caliban Corn-Welsh.
David Jones notes
5 Cf. song, Alfonso Spagony the Torreadore.
The oculus in the ships of Mediterranean antiquity is still retained in some builds of Portuguese vessel and indeed in vestigial form in some English ones; for as recently as c. 1935 when staying at Miss Helen Sutherland’s, I saw, in Embleton Bay, boats with markings suggestive of the oculus painted in their bows.
additional notes
a the golden fleur-de-lis is particularly important in French heraldry.
comments
On the way home they encounter vessels from Spain (‘Spagonies’) and Portugal (‘Geeses’), sail past the French island of Ushant and enter the English Channel.