Moby Dick

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lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in
my topmost grief. Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in,
ye bold billows of my whole foregone life, and top this one piled comber
of my death! Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering
whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at
thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins
and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let
me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee,
thou damned whale! THUS, I give up the spear!"

The harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew forward; with igniting
velocity the line ran through the grooves;--ran foul. Ahab stooped to
clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the
neck, and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was
shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone. Next instant, the
heavy eye-splice in the rope's final end flew out of the stark-empty
tub, knocked down an oarsman, and smiting the sea, disappeared in its