For those who don't have time to read the book or even the Cliff notes or the movie--Moby Dick in less than three minutes :). In the spirit of whaling songs . . . .

Lyrics

In the persona of Ahab and in empathy w/ his fierce desire to pierce the pasteboard mask of what we think of as reality.

Toward the unknown regions of the turbulent sea
Mates, set high the sails.
A gold doubloon for the first to see
The spout of the great white whale.
He heaps me, he tasks me
It be my only task,
To chase the behemoth to the ends of earth,
To pierce his pasteboard mask.

There's a plague as certain as the prophet's curse
In man and beast and gale.
The inscrutable malice of the universe
Swims in the great white whale.
He heaps me, he tasks me,
Say not that I blaspheme.
I'd strike the sun if it insulted me
And redden my blade with its beams.

Be he dumb blind brute of capricious chance
Or agent of evil will,
I mean to wreak my vengeful lance
In the name of all that's ill.
He heaps me, he tasks me
I wake with bloody nails.
Mates, raise high your fierce harpoons
The gulls announce the whale.

And if the leviathan seizes me
And the Pequod is destroyed,
I'll rise and beckon to come ride the beast
To the depths of the deep blue void.
He heaps me, he tasks me
Who lives must tell the tale--
I rode him into oblivion
Stabbing at the veil.