Ahab's Whale (standard:poetry, 524 words)
Author: Tom Soukup	Added: Jun 21 2003	Views/Reads: 3350/2108	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Basically, this is a rhyming Cliff's Notes of Moby Dick. It's actually the lyrics to a song I wrote but I thought it made good reading too.

Ahab's Whale 

. 

"Don't sail to the edge of the open sea 

'Cause you're likely to fall off." 

But I was young and bold as brass 

So on me such words were lost. 

The whalin' life is a magic wand 

With the pull of its magic worth. 

The frigate lies 'neath an azure sky 

'Twas the Pequod at its berth. 

. 

"This vessel's cursed," said the seaman's words 

As the spit ran down his face. 

Long shadows fell across his path 

When he turned and walked away. 

While high above up on the bridge 

Stood a man with an oaken leg 

And troubled eyes sunk beneath the ridge 

Of the brow on Ahab's face. 

. 

We soon set out across the waves 

On the winds of the seventh sea. 

Our harpoons lay in idle hands 

As the pods of whales swam free. 

'Cause Ahab had a silent goal 

And it ne'er was greed or fame. 

He was bound, they said, to avenge his leg 

With the great white whale to blame. 

. 

So whaling still runs in my veins 

When the wind doth blow a gale 

And I'm on the quest 'til I've won a rest 

And I've found old Ahab's whale. 

. 

Old Queequag spoke his heathen chants 

As he tossed the bones once more. 

He saw the gloom as he read the doom 

In the patterns on the floor. 


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