"A Holding"

[Thomas Eckhardt]

 > But there is something about the Hold of a ship or vessel or airship
 > or submarine...

"But they crossed, they survived. There is the epical splendour.
Multiply the rain's lances, multiply their ruin,
the grace born from subtraction as the hold's iron door

rolled over their eyes like pods left out in the rain,
and the bolt rammed home its echo, the way that thunder-
claps perpetuate their reverberation.

So there went the Ashanti one way, the Mandingo another,
the Ibo another, the Guinea. Now each man was a nation
in himself, without mother, father, brother."

Derek Walcott, "Omeros", pp. 149-150.

Here is an article in the NYT I can, for once, whole-heartedly recommend:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/books/in-praise-of-derek-walcotts-epic-of-the-americas.html