"Landfall and Departure mark the rhythmical swing of a seaman’s life and of a ship’s career. From land to land is the most concise definition of a ship’s earthly fate."
Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea (1906)
Absolute stunning perfection.
So much could be said about two lines that hang together like the balanced sails on some turn of the century clipper. The lines have a ‘rhythmical swing’ and a caesura sits about the middle of the first line (after ‘swing’) which leads the ear to find an equal length until we reach the full stop. It’s only natural for us to then read the second line with a slightly forced pause after ‘concise’, which the pushes us on to stress ‘definition’. The technique is poetic. The effect sublime.
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