The Anathemata
Keel, Ram, Stauros (continued)
And all things other
fast or easied:
bellied full
or brailed and furled.
For a poet’s galea or for a navigator’s
in a hard blow or before a zephyr.
Belayed or paid or gone
for a headfast or for a clew-line.b
Before and standing, for a stay, a-straddle for a ratlin’ d shroud or running and braced after.
Grommetted, moused; parcelled, served.c
Two-stranded marline
or straight-cored
heart-of-hemp hawser
altus1 and hoist
at the cathead or bowered to the fundus.d
David Jones notes
1 altus is here to be pronounced as awl-tus.
additional notes
a poet’s wind: the same as a soldier’s wind (page 99). DJ was a poet and soldier, not a sailor.
b a sail has gone for the want of a rope to the top of the sail or to the bottom corners (clews). Similarly stays, ratlines and shrouds are rigging that holds the mast in place.
a grommetted, moused, parcelled, served: properties of ropes and their management.
d altus and hoist: rigging attached to the anchor and its gear: secured at the cathead (a beam extending out from the hull in order to secure the anchor when raised) or lowered by the bower-cable to the bottom (fundus), i.e. the seabed.
comments
From the keel of the ship to her sails and rigging that it supports.