An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea.
Interpretation
This quote depicts a serene and beautiful scene of tranquility in nature.
Herman Melville's quote evokes a vivid sense of calmness and beauty in the natural world. The imagery of a 'universal yellow lotus' unfolding on the sea suggests a profound peace that envelops the surroundings, illustrating the harmonious relationship between nature and tranquility, where the calmness of the sea mirrors the quiet unfolding of the lotus, embodying both stillness and growth.
In practice
In a speech about environmental conservation, one might quote Melville to illustrate the beauty of untouched nature.
A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing; the more's the pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.
The Marquesan girls dance all over; not only do their feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers, ay, their very eyes seem to dance in their heads.
Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.
If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how then with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books should be forbid.
You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.... We are not a nation, so much as a world.
Only when I am by seawater can I truly breathe, to say nothing of my ability to think.
Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories.
I go to the mountains for an adventure and each time I pray I will get up and down again.
One great thing about fly fishing is that after a while nothing exists of the world but thoughts about fly fishing
Human beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them. How lovely a tree is, straining toward the sky.
Nature seems to take advantage of the simple mathematical representations of the symmetry laws. When one pauses to consider the elegance and the beautiful perfection of the mathematical reasoning involved and contrast it with the complex and far-reaching physical consequences, a deep sense of respect for the power of the symmetry laws never fails to develop.
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