Chapter 23 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 Lee Shore

Bulkington, this book is his epitaph.
A man so driven that he spent no more
than four days ashore before the mast called

him back to take the helm of the Pequod.
The truth of ships and men who crave the sea
is that the coastline is their darkest foe

and the howling wind a cruel tormentress.
The sea, wide and deep, is sanctuary.
The earth, hateful rocks to crack head and hull.