How we cite our quotes: (stanza.line)
Quote #4
We live in an old chaos of the sun,
Or old dependency of day and night,
Or island solitude, unsponsored, free,
Of that wide water, inescapable. (lines 110-113)
The poet gives us a little "moral of the story" pep talk here. He says that humans are alone on the earth and don’t have duties to anyone or anything but themselves. "Sponsor" is actually a Christian term for was someone who is re-SPONS-ible (see the connection?) for baptizing another person and making sure that he/she has a good religious education. So, when the poet says that we are "unsponsored," it means that there isn’t some adult authority figure in the universe (like, say, a God) to watch out for us and make sure that we do certain things. We are "free" of religious rules and duties.