He could not understand, and time and again, in despair, defeated and depressed, he returned to his article.

Prose was certainly an easier medium.
Following the "Pearl-diving," he wrote an article on the sea as a career, another on turtle-catching, and a third on the northeast trades.

Then he tried, as an experiment, a short story, and before he broke his stride he had finished six short stories and despatched them to various magazines.
He wrote prolifically, intensely, from morning till night, and late at night, except when he broke off to go to the reading-room, draw books from the library, or to call on Ruth.

He was profoundly happy.

Life was pitched high.