I would up heart, were it not like lead. But my whole clock's run down;
my heart the all-controlling weight, I have no key to lift again.
[A burst of revelry from the forecastle.]
Oh, God! to sail with such a heathen crew that have small touch
of human mothers in them! Whelped somewhere by the sharkish sea.
The white whale is their demigorgon. Hark! the infernal orgies!
that revelry is forward! mark the unfaltering silence aft!
Methinks it pictures life. Foremost through the sparkling sea
shoots on the gay, embattled, bantering bow, but only to drag
dark Ahab after it, where he broods within his sternward cabin,
builded over the dead water of the wake, and further on,
hunted by its wolfish gurglings. The long howl thrills me through!
Peace! ye revellers, and set the watch! Oh, life! 'tis in an
hour like this, with soul beat down and held to knowledge,--
as wild, untutored things are forced to feed--Oh, life! 'tis
now that I do feel the latent horror in thee! but 'tis not me!
that horror's out of me, and with the soft feeling of the human
in me, yet will I try to fight ye, ye grim, phantom futures!
Stand by me, hold me, bind me, O ye blessed influences!
CHAPTER 39
First Night Watch
(Stubb solus, and mending a brace.
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