Explore "In the Turret. (March, 1862.)" by Herman Melville on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Your honest heart of duty, Worden, / So helped you that in fame you dwell; / You bore the first iron battle's burden / Sealed as in a diving-bell. / Alcides, groping into haunted hell / To bring forth King Admetus' bride, / Braved naught more vaguely direful and untried. / What poet shall uplift his charm, / Bold Sailor, to your height of daring, / And interblend therewith the calm, / And build a goodly style upon your bearing.
Escaped the gale of outer ocean -- / Cribbed in a craft which like a log / Was washed by every billow's motion -- / By night you heard of Og / The huge; nor felt your courage clog / At tokens of his onset grim: / You marked the sunk ship's flag-staff slim, / Lit by her burning sister's heart; / You marked, and mused: "Day brings the trial: / Then be it proved if I have part / With men whose manhood never took denial."