And Speaking of Whales

Sojourn in the Whale

Trying to open locked doors with a sword, threading
 the points of needles, planting shade trees
 upside down; swallowed by the opaqueness of one whom the
                                                      seas
love better than they love you, Ireland--

you have lived and lived on every kind of shortage.
 You have been compelled by hags to spin
 gold thread from straw and have heard men say:
"There is a feminine temperament in direct contrast to ours,

which makes her do these things. Circumscribed by a
 heritage of blindness and native
 incompetence, she will become wise and will be forced to give in.
Compelled by experience, she will turn back;

water seeks its own level":
 and you have smiled. "Water in motion is far
 from level." You have seen it, when obstacles happened to bar
the path, rise automatically.

--Marianne Moore