Through thee, thy flaming self, my scorched eyes do dimly see it.
Oh, thou foundling fire, thou hermit immemorial, thou too
hast thy incommunicable riddle, thy unparticipated grief.
Here again with haughty agony, I read my sire. Leap! leap up,
and lick the sky! I leap with thee; I burn with thee;
would fain be welded with thee; defyingly I worship thee!"
"The boat! the boat!" cried Starbuck, "look at thy boat, old man!"
Ahab's harpoon, the one forged at Perth's fire, remained firmly
lashed in its conspicuous crotch, so that it projected beyond
his whale-boat's bow; but the sea that had stove its bottom had
caused the loose leather sheath to drop off; and from the keen
steel barb there now came a levelled flame of pale, forked fire.
As the silent harpoon burned there like a serpent's tongue,
Starbuck grasped Ahab by the arm--"God, God is against thee,
old man; forbear! 't is an ill voyage! ill begun, ill continued;
let me square the yards, while we may, old man, and make a fair
wind of it homewards, to go on a better voyage than this."
Overhearing Starbuck, the panic-stricken crew instantly
ran to the braces--though not a sail was left aloft.
For the moment all the aghast mate's thoughts seemed theirs;
they raised a half mutinous cry.
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