'Unwet, ...breather of unbreathable...'

Man’s life is warm, glad, sad, ’twixt loves and graves
Boundless in hope, honored with pangs austere,
Heaven-gazing; and his angel-wings he craves:
The fish is swift, small-needing, vague yet clear,
A cold, sweet, silver life, wrapped in round waves,
Quickened with touches of transporting fear.

-- lines from Leigh Hunt's The Fish, the Man, and the Spirit quoted by Billy Collins