Finding Melville’s Whale: Hark! (Chapter 43)
Hark!
A noise
in the hold
like a cough
do you
Imagine
ghosts
aboard?
Or men,
lying
in the
darkness.
Finding Melville’s Whale
Finding Melville’s Whale: The Whiteness of the Whale (Chapter 42)
After reading some of the reviews from our Readers’ Survey, many people list these among their favorite posts, while many others consider them their least favorite. So, we’ve decided to change the posting schedule for Finding Melville’s Whale. From now on, one or two new entries will appear every Sunday, instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays. We hope you will continue reading along with us as we dive deeper in Melville’s masterpiece.
The Whiteness of the Whale
The nameless horror
in that deepest sea
is the whitest whale.
Albino beasts, though
oft mistaken for
divine ravelry
are far more vicious
then their drab companions.
Moby Dick was the
Whitest whale, and the
most horrible.
Finding Melville’s Whale – Moby Dick (Chapter 41)
After reading some of the reviews from our Readers’ Survey, many people list these among their favorite posts, while many others consider them their least favorite. So, we’ve decided to change the posting schedule for Finding Melville’s Whale. From now on, one or two new entries will appear every Sunday, instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays. We hope you will continue reading along with us as we dive deeper in Melville’s masterpiece.
Moby Dick
By the glint of harpoon goblets, Ishmael
had sworn bloody vengeance upon the whale.
His future now belongs to Moby Dick.A whale that terrorized the world’s oceans,
whose tremendous bulk instilled fear in all
men and marine life, even the sharks fled.He became as god in whalemen’s legend,
ubiquitous, occupying all seas,
and immortal, no harpoon could harm him.His great bulk, his forehead, wrinkled and white,
his deformed jaw, twisted and cruel, a scythe,
and a conscious, intelligent malice.The were the fearsome features Ahab fought,
when from a shattered boat he pulled a blade
against the whale, in blood soaked seas, bodies,
lost comrades, swirled around him, Moby Dick,
who reached out with his reaper’s jaw and took
all that Ahab was, and also his leg.In the throws of madness Ahab subsumed
his demons, leaving behind a monster-
filled captain, unyielding in his vengeance.And the crew that sails with him, Savages,
Cannibals, Mongrels, broken men. Ishmael’s
oath is to this bloodthirsty endeavor.
First-night Watch and Midnight, Forecastle (Finding Melville’s Whale Chapters 39 and 40)
After reading some of the reviews from our Readers’ Survey, many people list these among their favorite posts, while many others consider them their least favorite. So, we’ve decided to change the posting schedule for Finding Melville’s Whale. From now on, one or two new entries will appear every Sunday, instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays. We hope you will continue reading along with us as we dive deeper in Melville’s masterpiece.
Finding Melville’s Whale: Sunset and Dusk (Chapters 37 and 38)
Thanks to everyone who stuck around during our blog vacation. Our adventure into Moby Dick continues with chapters 37 and 38 – Sunset and Dusk. These two chapters have been consolidated from two soliloquies to a dialog between Ahab and Starbuck. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments. Visit this page for the complete collection to date: Finding Melville’s Whale.
Sunset and Dusk
Ahab: I wear this burden on my brow.
Starbuck: Madness, madness of my captain.
Ahab: No noble sunrise, but anguish.
Starbuck: I see his doom, but follow him.
Ahab: No soothing sunset, but horrors.
Starbuck: This heathen crew swears pagan oaths.
Ahab: They think me mad to hunt the whale.
Starbuck: To fulfill Ahab’s ghastly will.
Ahab: Who took my leg, Starbuck, my leg!
Starbuck: I must fight this phantom future.
Ahab: My path is fixed in iron hate.All: A dead whale or a stove boat!
All: A dead whale or a stove boat!
Finding Melville’s Whale: The Quarter-deck (Chapter 36)
Thanks to everyone who stuck around during our blog vacation. Our adventure into Moby Dick continues with chapter 36 – The Quarter-deck. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments. Visit this page for the complete collection to date: Finding Melville’s Whale.
The Quarter-deck
Ahab, standing upon the deck, his leg
locked into an augered hole, asks “ye pull
to what tune?” “A dead whale or a stove boat!”A dead whale or a stove boat. He withdraws
a gold coin and hammers it to the mast.
“Gold to whomever raises me a white whale!The whale that took my leg and left me lame!”
And the crew murmurs, for the harpooners
know the beast that Ahab has sworn vengeance.Leviathan! with a quick and mighty spout,
whose body, marked by a dozen harpoons
is as white as the sea foam – Moby Dick.And they raise a whaleman’s toast to vengeance.
“Death to the White Whale! Death to Moby Dick!”
And only Starbuck knows it is madness.
Finding Melville’s Whale: The Mast Head (Chapter 35)
Thanks to everyone who stuck around during our blog vacation. Our adventure into Moby Dick continues with chapter 35 – The Mast Head. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments. Visit this page for the complete collection to date: Finding Melville’s Whale.
The Mast Head
Upon his perch, one hundred feet above
the rolling pitch, deepest blue, a whaleman
loses himself to the sea, becomes her.Grasping the cross-bar, he sheds all meaning,
binding his body with the ships timbers,
joining in holy union with the wavesbeneath her hull. And from this vantage he
shall sight the monster rising from the deep
and call out to his shipmates, “Whale! Whale-ho!”Yet lost in revelry, a thoughtful man
may falter in his union with the ship
and find the sea an unforgiving fate.
Finding Melville’s Whale: The Cabin Table (Chapter 34)
Thanks to everyone who stuck around during our blog vacation. Our adventure into Moby Dick continues with chapter 34 – The Cabin Table. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments. Visit this page for the complete collection to date: Finding Melville’s Whale.
The Cabin Table
Down went Ahab, to the Captain’s Table
to dine silently among men of rank,
then Starbuck, then Stubb, then Flask at the last.The poor officer ranked forth among men
who must eat last and finish first, hunger
is his eternal companion.After the officers finish their meals,
it is time for the harpooners to dine,
the great savages, ranked above the crew.Not by beef or bread are giants made,
nor are their brutal manners forgotten,
yet the cabin is theirs for the eating.Pity poor Dough-boy, he must satisfy
their ravenous appetite and abide
the cannibal customs of savage men.
Finding Melville’s Whale: Chapters 17-33
Thanks to everyone who’s followed along with us on our journey through the maritime classic – Moby Dick. I hope the pace is not too slow or too fast for anyone.
For those just joining us, we’re reading through Moby Dick a few chapters a week. You can follow along with your own copy or use the excellent Power Moby Dick website, complete will full text and annotations. Updates are posted every Tuesday and Thursday, with occasional Sundays. Each update includes a short summary (in verse) of the chapter. Reproduced below are the entries from chapters 17 through 33:
Finding Melville’s Whale: The Specksynder (Chapter 33)
Chapter 33 of Herman Melville’s classic – Moby Dick. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments. Visit this page for the complete collection to date: Finding Melville’s Whale.
The SpecksynderSuch it is on a whale ship that officers,
even captains, serve at the harpoons’ will.
And though the captain is the lord of his ship,the harpooner is its only master.
And so, while the crew sleeps before the mast,
harpooner and officer dwell astern.It must always be, on such a journey,
that the savage seamen of lesser rank
reside apart from their superiors.A disinterested Ahab regards
this distinction as a formality.
He demands obedience, not manners.