{"id":"01KF7FPMJ5KMEK4GKHE8YHV6TV","cid":"bafkreid2j4zkonxb4v5lwt7xtmeejs3vufjpvq4vdtmpsukda5fofb334y","type":"chapter","properties":{"end_line":6971,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:15.062Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Sunset.","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":6923,"text":"CHAPTER 37. Sunset.\r\n\r\n_The cabin; by the stern windows; Ahab sitting alone, and gazing out_.\r\n\r\nI leave a white and turbid wake; pale waters, paler cheeks, where’er I\r\nsail. The envious billows sidelong swell to whelm my track; let them;\r\nbut first I pass.\r\n\r\nYonder, by ever-brimming goblet’s rim, the warm waves blush like wine.\r\nThe gold brow plumbs the blue. The diver sun—slow dived from noon—goes\r\ndown; my soul mounts up! she wearies with her endless hill. Is, then,\r\nthe crown too heavy that I wear? this Iron Crown of Lombardy. Yet is it\r\nbright with many a gem; I the wearer, see not its far flashings; but\r\ndarkly feel that I wear that, that dazzlingly confounds. ’Tis iron—that\r\nI know—not gold. ’Tis split, too—that I feel; the jagged edge galls me\r\nso, my brain seems to beat against the solid metal; aye, steel skull,\r\nmine; the sort that needs no helmet in the most brain-battering fight!\r\n\r\nDry heat upon my brow? Oh! time was, when as the sunrise nobly spurred\r\nme, so the sunset soothed. No more. This lovely light, it lights not\r\nme; all loveliness is anguish to me, since I can ne’er enjoy. Gifted\r\nwith the high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power; damned, most\r\nsubtly and most malignantly! damned in the midst of Paradise! Good\r\nnight—good night! (_waving his hand, he moves from the window_.)\r\n\r\n’Twas not so hard a task. I thought to find one stubborn, at the least;\r\nbut my one cogged circle fits into all their various wheels, and they\r\nrevolve. Or, if you will, like so many ant-hills of powder, they all\r\nstand before me; and I their match. Oh, hard! that to fire others, the\r\nmatch itself must needs be wasting! What I’ve dared, I’ve willed; and\r\nwhat I’ve willed, I’ll do! They think me mad—Starbuck does; but I’m\r\ndemoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that’s only calm to\r\ncomprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered;\r\nand—Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my\r\ndismemberer. Now, then, be the prophet and the fulfiller one. That’s\r\nmore than ye, ye great gods, ever were. I laugh and hoot at ye, ye\r\ncricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and blinded Bendigoes! I\r\nwill not say as schoolboys do to bullies—Take some one of your own\r\nsize; don’t pommel _me!_ No, ye’ve knocked me down, and I am up again;\r\nbut _ye_ have run and hidden. Come forth from behind your cotton bags!\r\nI have no long gun to reach ye. Come, Ahab’s compliments to ye; come\r\nand see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye\r\nswerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed\r\npurpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run.\r\nOver unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under\r\ntorrents’ beds, unerringly I rush! Naught’s an obstacle, naught’s an\r\nangle to the iron way!\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Sunset."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KESYJX0Z6XE0HWTS5N3SDG0B","peer_label":"The Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:15.999Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:15.999Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}