For this post, I am taking Professor Friedman’s suggestion to contextualize more fully how Melville writes about “pitchpoling,” at once referring to its regular usage, meaning a boat’s capsizing, and also to a sperm whale’s breaching, a connotation which Melville seems to have crafted himself.  In doing this, Melville is subtly comparing through metonymy the … Continue reading “Pitchpoling” in context