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“ Then God keep thee , old man — see’st thou that ” — pointing to the hammock — “ I bury but one of five stout men , who were alive only yesterday ; but were dead ere night . Only that one I bury ; the rest were buried before they died ; you sail upon their tomb . ” Then turning to his crew — “ Are ye ready there ? place the plank then on the rail , and lift the body ; so , then — Oh ! God ” — advancing towards the hammock with uplifted hands — “ may the resurrection and the life — — ” “ Brace forward ! Up helm ! ” cried Ahab like lightning to his men . But the suddenly started Pequod was not quick enough to escape the sound of the splash that the corpse soon made as it struck the sea ; not so quick , indeed , but that some of the flying bubbles might have sprinkled her hull with their ghostly baptism . As Ahab now glided from the dejected Delight , the strange life - buoy hanging at the Pequod’s stern came into conspicuous relief . “ Ha ! yonder ! look yonder , men ! ” cried a foreboding voice in her wake . “ In vain , oh , ye strangers , ye fly our sad burial ; ye but turn us your taffrail to show us your coffin ! ” CHAPTER 132 . The Symphony . It was a clear steel - blue day . The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all - pervading azure ; only , the pensive air was transparently pure and soft , with a woman’s look , and the robust and man - like sea heaved with long , strong , lingering swells , as Samson’s chest in his sleep . Hither , and thither , on high , glided the snow - white wings of small , unspeckled birds ; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air ; but to and fro in the deeps , far down in the bottomless blue , rushed mighty leviathans , sword - fish , and sharks ; and these were the strong , troubled , murderous thinkings of the masculine sea . But though thus contrasting within , the contrast was only in shades and shadows without ; those two seemed one ; it was only the sex , as it were , that distinguished them . Aloft , like a royal czar and king , the sun seemed giving this gentle air to this bold and rolling sea ; even as bride to groom . And at the girdling line of the horizon , a soft and tremulous motion — most seen here at the equator — denoted the fond , throbbing trust , the loving alarms , with which the poor bride gave her bosom away . Tied up and twisted ; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles ; haggardly firm and unyielding ; his eyes glowing like coals , that still glow in the ashes of ruin ; untottering Ahab stood forth in the clearness of the morn ; lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl’s forehead of heaven .
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