The publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950 established Ray Bradbury as one of the great visionaries of fantastic fiction. Author of some six hundred short stories and more than thirty books, including Dandelion Wine, The Illustrated Man, I Sing the Body Electric, and that great classic, Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury received many major mainstream literary awards like the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, while also receiving the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Here, Bradbury blends two great classics together in a poem that uses the dark violence of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick to deconstruct and reimagine the great baseball classic, “Casey at the Bat,” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer.
With apologies to Herman Melville and the illustrious author of Casey at the Bat, Ernest Lawrence Thayer.
It looked extremely rocky for the Melville nine that day,
The score stood at two lowerings, with one lowering yet to play,
And when Fedallah died and rose, and others did the same,
A pallor wreathed the features of the patrons of this Game.
A straggling few downed-oars to go, leaving behind the rest,
With that hope which springs eternal from the blind dark human breast.
They prayed that Captain Ahab’s rage would thrust, strike, overwhelm!
They’d wager “Death to Moby!” with old Ahab at the helm.
But Flask preceded Ahab, and likewise so did Stubb,
And the former was a midget, while the latter was a nub.
Behold! the stricken multitudes in silence pent did swoon,
For when, oh when would Ahab rise to hurl his dread harpoon?!
First Flask let drive a gaffing hook. The wonderment of all!
Then much-despised Stubb’s right arm brought blood and bile and gall!
But when the mist had lifted. Ishmael saw what had occurred:
Flask stood safe in the second boat, while Stubb clutched to the third.
Then from the gladdened whaling-men went up a joyous yell,
It bounded from the tidal hills and echoed in the dell,
It struck upon the soaring wave, shook Pequod’s mast and keel,
For Ahab, mighty Ahab, was advancing with his steel.
There was ease in Ahab’s manner as he stepped into his place,
There was pride in Ahab’s bearing and a smile on Ahab’s face;
The cheers, the wildest shoutings, did not him overwhelm,
No man in all that crowd could doubt, ’twas Ahab at the helm.
Four dozen eyes fixed on him as he coiled the hempen rope,
Two dozen tongues applauded as he raised his steel, their hope.
And while the writhing Moby ground the whale-boats with his hip,
Defiance gleamed from Ahab’s eye, a sneer curled Ahab’s lip.
And now the white-fleshed monster came a-hurtling through the air,
While Ahab stood despising it in haughty grandeur there!
Close by the sturdy harpooner the Whale unheeded sped—
“That ain’t my style,” said Ahab.
“Strike! Strike!” Good Starbuck said.
From the longboats black with sailors there uprose a sullen roar,
Like the beating of mad storm waves on a stern and distant shore:
“Kill Starbuck! Kill the First Mate!” shouted someone of the band.
And it’s likely they’d have done so had not Ahab raised his hand.
With a smile of Christian charity great Ahab’s visage shone,
He stilled the rising tumult and he bade the Chase go on.
He signalled to the White Whale, and again old Moby flew.
But still Ahab ignored it. Ishmael cried, “Strike! Strike, man!” too.
“Fraud!” yelled the rebel sailors, and sea-echoes answered, “Fraud!”
But one scornful glance from Ahab and his audience was awed.
They saw his face grow pale and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Ahab’s fury would not pass that Whale again.
The sneer is gone from Ahab’s lips, his teeth are clenched in hate,
He pounds with cruel violence his harpoon upon his pate,
And now old Moby gathers power, and now he lets it go.
And now the air is shattered by the force of Ahab’s blow!
Oh, somewhere on the Seven Seas, the sun is shining bright,
The hornpipe plays yet somewhere and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere teachers laugh and sing, and somewhere scholars shout,
But there is no joy in Melville—mighty Ahab has Struck Out.