Poetry · Chapter
The Following Pair explained
A whimsical dialogue between a narrator and a remarkable mortal who chews tobacco and follows the seas, contrasted with a shark that follows ships and dines upon salts, exploring themes of habit and imitation.
What happens
A whimsical dialogue between a narrator and a remarkable mortal who chews tobacco and follows the seas, contrasted with a shark that follows ships and dines upon salts, exploring themes of habit and imitation.
Themes in this chapter
Nature and Artifice
The contrast between the mortal's chewing tobacco and the shark's natural diet highlights the tension between human artifice and natural behavior.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The narrator questions the remarkable mortal about his habits.
Key passages
“O very remarkable mortal, What food is engaging your jaws And staining with amber their portal? “It’s ’baccy I chaws.””
The narrator asks a strange man what he is chewing that stains his mouth amber, and the man replies that it is tobacco.
Opens the dialogue with a focus on the mortal's peculiar habit.
“And why do you sway in your walking, To right and left many degrees, And hitch up your trousers when talking? “I follers the seas.””
The narrator asks why the man walks unsteadily and adjusts his trousers, and the man explains that he follows the sea.
Reveals the mortal's identity as a seafarer.
“Great indolent shark in the rollers, Is “ ’baccy,” too, one of your faults?— You, too, display maculate molars. “I dines upon salts.””
The narrator asks a lazy shark if it also chews tobacco, noting its stained teeth, but the shark says it eats salts.
Introduces the shark as a parallel figure with its own diet.
“Strange diet!—intestinal pain it Is commonly given to nip. And how can you ever obtain it? “I follers the ship.””
The narrator remarks that eating salts causes stomach pain and asks how the shark gets them; the shark replies that it follows the ship.
Clarifies the shark's method of obtaining its food, mirroring the mortal's following of the sea.