RJ 4: The End of Moby Dick

I've been doing one of my periodic re-readings of Moby Dick. Here are a few passages from the end (the three-day chase) that struck my eye this time through.

Starbuck, of late I've felt strangely moved to thee...But in this matter of the whale, be the front of thy face to me as the palm of this hand--a lipless, unfeatured blank. Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act's immutably decreed. (509)

Against the wind he now steers for the open jaw...God keep us, but already my bones feel damp within me, and from the inside wet my flesh. I misdoubt me that I obey my God in obeying him! (512)

"The ship! The hearse!--the second hearse!" cried Ahab from the boat; "it's wood could only be American!" (519)

And from earlier in the narrative,

Not seldom in this life, when, on the right side, fortune's favorites sail close by us, we, though all adroop before, catch somewhat of the rushing breeze, and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out. (452)