Miriam Coffin: Or, The Whale-fisherman: a Tale, Volume 1 |
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Common terms and phrases
Admiral American anchor answered appeared blue-fish boat body called captain colony command companion crew dance daughter deck deep exclaimed eyes father favour females fiddle forecastle fortune fortune-teller Gardner give Grampus Grimshaw hand harpoon head heard heart honour Imbert Indian inhabitants Isaac island Jethro Coffin Jonathan Jonathan Coleman Judith kritter Leviathan look mack'rel manner Manta Mary mate ment mind Miriam Coffin Nantucket neighbour never oars observed ocean once Pacific Ocean passed Peleg Folger Quaker Quibby quohogs replied Ruth sail sailor sand scarcely scene schooner Seth Macy shearing Sherburne ship shore shouted side sight Starbuck strangers sure Tashima tell thee thing Thomas thou art thou hast thou wilt thought tion town town of Sherburne Tristram Coffin turned vessel voyage whale whale-fishermen whale-ship wigwam wind woman words young
Popular passages
Page iii - Whilst we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south.
Page 268 - DEEP in the wave is a coral grove, Where the purple mullet and gold-fish rove, Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue, That never are wet with falling dew, But in bright and changeful beauty shine, Far down in the green and glassy brine.
Page 268 - The fan-coral sweeps through the clear, deep sea: And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean Are bending like corn on the upland lea: And life, in rare and beautiful forms, Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms Has made the top of the wave his own...
Page 268 - From coral rocks the sea-plants lift Their boughs, where the tides and billows flow ; The water is calm and still below, For the winds and waves are absent there, And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In tne motionless fields of upper air...
Page 207 - A thousand men, that fishes gnawed upon ; Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scattered in the bottom of the sea. Some lay in dead men's skulls ; and, in those holes, Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept (As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems, That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep, And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.
Page 268 - ... ocean Are bending like corn on the upland lea: And life, in rare and beautiful forms, Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, And is safe when the wrathful spirit of storms Has made the top of the wave his own; And when the ship from his fury flies, Where the myriad voices of ocean roar, When the wind-god frowns in the murky skies, And demons are waiting the wreck on shore; Then far below in the peaceful sea, The purple mullet and gold-fish rove, Where the waters murmur tranquilly, Through the...
Page 268 - There, with its waving blade of green, The sea-flag streams through the silent water, And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen To blush, like a banner bathed in slaughter. There, with a light and easy motion, The fan-coral sweeps through the clear, deep sea; And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean Are bending like corn on the upland lea.
Page iii - No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people...
Page 286 - But yesterday, the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world : now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence.
Page 197 - Seals of love, but seal'd in vain. Hide, oh, hide those hills of snow Which thy frozen bosom bears, On whose tops the pinks that grow, Are of those that April wears. But first set my poor heart free, Bound in those icy chains by thee.