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Finding Melville’s Whale: Chapter 10 – A Bosom Friend

Posted on September 16, 2010August 3, 2010 By Andrew Thaler
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Chapter 10 of the classic Moby Dick by Herman Melville, summarized in verse. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments.

A Bosom Friend

Returning from the sermon, Ishmael finds
Queequeg sitting alone, soul unhidden.
A philosopher in savage trappings.

A
pagan
wise, serene,
comtemplative,
whom companion ship
is all he requires
whose kindness is genuine
not the hollow courtesy of
a christian seeking to serve himself
and win salvation by service
to rote of word, devotion,
not actions in kindness
nor spirit of book.
Thus, the pagan
will make a
truer
friend

And so Ishmael kneels with Queequeg, worships
his ebony idols, to do the will
of god – to do right by his fellow man.

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