# Epigraph explained — Two Years Before the Mast

> Chapter companion for Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr..

## What happens

The epigraph, drawn from Coleridge's Wallenstein, sets a tone of isolation and deprivation, contrasting the harsh, confined life at sea with the beauty and comfort of the inland world that remains unseen.

## Themes in this chapter

### Isolation and Longing

The epigraph evokes the isolation of sea life, where the beauty of the land is entirely absent, and the crew is cut off from all that is 'fair and exquisite.'

### Hardship and Endurance

The 'rude voyage' and 'wild usages' of the sea emphasize the physical and emotional hardship that defines the mariner's experience.

## Key lines

> Crowded in the rank and narrow ship— Housed on the wild sea with wild usages— Whate’er in the inland dales the land conceals Of fair and exquisite, O! nothing, nothing, Do we behold of that in our rude voyage.

Confined in a cramped and foul vessel, living on the unpredictable ocean with its harsh customs, we see none of the beauty and refinement that the sheltered valleys of the land hold.

_The epigraph establishes the central contrast between the brutal reality of sea life and the lost comforts of civilization._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/two_years_before_the_mast_se/chapters/epigraph
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/two_years_before_the_mast_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/two_years_before_the_mast_se/chapters