Where unrecorded
names and navies rust, and untold hopes and anchors rot;
where in her murderous hold this frigate earth is ballasted
with bones of millions of the drowned; there, in that awful
water-land, there was thy most familiar home. Thou hast been
where bell or diver never went; hast slept by many a sailor's side,
where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down.
Thou saw'st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship;
heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave;
true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them.
Thou saw'st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from
the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight
of the insatiate maw; and his murderers still sailed on unharmed--
while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that would
have borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms.
O head! thou hast seen enough to split the planets and make
an infidel of Abraham, and not one syllable is thine!"
"Sail ho!" cried a triumphant voice from the main-mast-head.
"Aye? Well, now, that's cheering," cried Ahab, suddenly erecting
himself, while whole thunder-clouds swept aside from his brow.
"That lively cry upon this deadly calm might almost convert
a better man.
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