Not P but Moby-Dick (54)

[Michael Bailey]

 that's a preferable meaning for sure, but can't see how you get there from
the text - even allowing that "in their bed" is elided - even if "where"
might be a non-physical "where" not referring to the sea bottom, but to
something like "in which case"

- still couldn't make a sketch depicting the passage

On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 4:59 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I read the second line (after the semi-colon)  as that whales have slept
> (in the water) by many a sailor's side--whales do not sleep on the ocean
> floor---
> and sleepless mothers---worried about their sons on a ship--- would rather
> die so that they their sons could lay down again in their bed..."lay them
> down" [in their bed] again is elided ...
>
> On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 4:35 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> *“*
>> *Thou hast been where bellor diver never went; hast slept by many a
>> sailor's side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them
>> down.”*
>>
>> The context proceeding the mother’s desires focuses on accessibility, or
>> the great privilege of the whale to access places no human has ever been.
>> So it seems to imply that the mothers would be willing to throw themselves
>> to the bottom of the ocean, if by doing so they could lay beside their dead
>> sons.
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 4:12 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I think it means the mothers would love to lay their sailors down in the
>>> bed where they ly with other sailors...
>>>
>>