Not P but Moby-Dick (45)

[Michael Bailey]

Not necessarily adding anything new but…I can’t let go of


rising up with earnest of squalls and rains, seems to



Just a note of appreciation for Melville’s prose - “rising up with earnest
of…” is such an uncommonly nice turn of phrase

He’s not so much personifying the cloud as stating the effect it has on the
crew


*noun*
> noun: *earnest*; plural noun: *earnests*
>
>    1. a thing intended or regarded as a sign or promise of what is to
>    come.
>    "the presence of the troops is an earnest of the world's desire not to
>    see the conflict repeated elsewhere"
>
>
>

In common modern parlance one encounters this sense of the word “earnest”
when buying a house; “earnest money” indicates a serious offer, raising the
expectation that there’s more money coming




>