The Try-Works

Lyrics

[ISHMAEL] Late that night, we sat at the try-works Boiling the rest of our whale In red flames The blubber cut thin Like pages of a Bible Boiling down to oil for sale In red flames And the fire is fed by the fritters of the blubber Left over from the oil that we make He burns in himself He burns in himself Late at night The gore and blood still dripped upon the deck As we choked on the stink and the steam Of red flames I stared into the fire, my eyes began to scorch Fevered and delusioned, I dreamed Of red flames And then I looked in the faces of my brothers and saw the red reflected in their eyes They burn in themselves They burn in themselves Late at night [CREW] Ah [AHAB] Raise the whale head And then [?] [?] [TASHTEGO & DAGGOO] A sperm whale on starboard A right whale on larboard And you can never capsize [FEDALLAH] Shall I prophecize, O Captain? Read the future on their face? [AHAB, spoken] Yes, Fedallah [FEDALLAH] I die first You die second You die by your own rope But before you die Two hearses sail by The first misunderstood The second one made of American wood