...! must ye then perish, and without me ? Ami cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains ? Oh, lonely death on lonely life ! Oh, now I feel my top . most greatness lics in my topmost grief. Ho, ho ! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now...

...must ye then perish, and without me ? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now...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...

...lonely death on lonely lif e ! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my txDmost grief. Ho, bo ! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now in, ye bold billows of my whole foregone life, and top thl« one piled comber of my death ! Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale;...

...must ye then perish, and without me ? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains ? Oh, lonely death on lonely life ! Oh, now...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...

...ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now...foregone life, and top this one piled comber of my death! Towards thce I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from...

...on to the fatal combat in which Ahab hurls a final spear, cries, " 'Oh, lonely death on lonely lifel Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief,' " and goes to his death a few moments before the White Whale turns and sinks the Pequod itself. The...

...grandiloquent periods of the Captain's last defiance in the paragraph preceding the one just cited ("Ho, ho! from all your furthest bounds, pour ye now...foregone life, and top this one piled comber of my death!")4 the language itself retreats to the status of impartial recording, noting physical details...

...ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now...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...

...ship! must ye then perish, and without me? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now...whole foregone life, and top this one piled comber ot my death! Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple...

...his ship are going down separately (he tied to the "damned whale," sounding), he achieves apotheosis: "lonely death on lonely life! Oh, now I feel my topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief." Suffering, grief, and the stature of tragic heroism are one at the moment of extinction. What has silenced...