Levi The Poet - Herman Melville lyrics
[Levi The Poet - Herman Melville lyrics]
Said the first mate to the
Ship captain, "Oh captain
My captain! I've not read the
Last page of whatever novel
You've been writing down below but the bow is
Bending beneath the weather and your
Men hopelessly row against
A current that I hope you can control"
"So?"
"So are the chapters erasable?"
Beneath waves of pipe tobacco and ashen ink
That clings to the end of
His quill, words spill across the oak
Tree trunk fashioned into a table
Set before the author as he
Composes his fables… calmly, "sailor
I've enabled you
To sail where I'd not and you've
Got a colorful tongue, boy
A rudder that rots at the root of the
Tree as the ship that you've built
Falls apart at it's seams and you steer
Us deeper out into the seas"
The whole company's drowning thinks, God
That's so unfair to me "But
I've got a family!"
"Well then, father, you'd better
Feed your children, and stop blaming me for
The immovable grasp that
You have on the wheel! It's not like you
Didn't ask to hang your own sails
To raise your flag on the mast
To set course for a trail
That followed gold to
Unknown waters in the mouth of a whale
So when the mast breaks in half
Don't you say that I've failed"
And slowly, the sailor bows out the door
Feigning humility, as the floor creaks
Crushing worms that crawled
Out of his boots beneath the weight of such
A scolding that wormwood killed the crew
Embittered them against the
Ship captain's last
Discipline out of love for you
"My crewmen and my brothers and
My friends and my son, all sank
Beneath the current pulled by the
Gravity of what I'd done
And these seas and the moon
Reflect the image of
The one that left me without excuse once the
End had come" Oh captain, my maker
I've got nothing left to say, would that I
Have praised, with nature, your invisible
Name but I bit off my
Fingers and left myself maimed
With a hook that's replaced
Years of pointed blame
It's too late! Is it too late
To calm the waves? And
Would you turn your face away
To drive me to grace?
I am drowning! Awake! Walk the plank
In my place walk the
Plank! Walk the plank! With my
Last words I say:
"Praise be the maker of my fate
For the suffering he ordains"
Ship captain, "Oh captain
My captain! I've not read the
Last page of whatever novel
You've been writing down below but the bow is
Bending beneath the weather and your
Men hopelessly row against
A current that I hope you can control"
"So?"
"So are the chapters erasable?"
Beneath waves of pipe tobacco and ashen ink
That clings to the end of
His quill, words spill across the oak
Tree trunk fashioned into a table
Set before the author as he
Composes his fables… calmly, "sailor
I've enabled you
To sail where I'd not and you've
Got a colorful tongue, boy
A rudder that rots at the root of the
Tree as the ship that you've built
Falls apart at it's seams and you steer
Us deeper out into the seas"
The whole company's drowning thinks, God
That's so unfair to me "But
I've got a family!"
"Well then, father, you'd better
Feed your children, and stop blaming me for
The immovable grasp that
You have on the wheel! It's not like you
Didn't ask to hang your own sails
To raise your flag on the mast
To set course for a trail
That followed gold to
Unknown waters in the mouth of a whale
So when the mast breaks in half
Don't you say that I've failed"
And slowly, the sailor bows out the door
Feigning humility, as the floor creaks
Crushing worms that crawled
Out of his boots beneath the weight of such
A scolding that wormwood killed the crew
Embittered them against the
Ship captain's last
Discipline out of love for you
"My crewmen and my brothers and
My friends and my son, all sank
Beneath the current pulled by the
Gravity of what I'd done
And these seas and the moon
Reflect the image of
The one that left me without excuse once the
End had come" Oh captain, my maker
I've got nothing left to say, would that I
Have praised, with nature, your invisible
Name but I bit off my
Fingers and left myself maimed
With a hook that's replaced
Years of pointed blame
It's too late! Is it too late
To calm the waves? And
Would you turn your face away
To drive me to grace?
I am drowning! Awake! Walk the plank
In my place walk the
Plank! Walk the plank! With my
Last words I say:
"Praise be the maker of my fate
For the suffering he ordains"