Canto III

The bloody fight, successless toil,And how the fishes sack'd the isle.

The boat which, on the first assault did go,Struck with a harping-iron the younger foe;Who, when he felt his side so rudely gored,Loud as the sea that nourished him he roar'd.As a broad bream, to please some curious taste,While yet alive, in boiling water cast,Vex'd with unwonted heat he flings aboutThe scorching brass, and hurls the liquor out;So with the barbed jav'lin stung, he raves,And scourges with his tail the suffering waves.Like Spenser's Talus with his iron flail,He threatens ruin with his pond'rous tail;Dissolving at one stroke the batter'd boat,And down the men fall drenched in the moat;With every fierce encounter they are forcedTo quit their boats, and fare like men unhorsed.

The bigger whale like some huge carrack lay,Which wanteth sea-room with her foes to play;Slowly she swims; and when, provoked, she wouldAdvance her tail, her head salutes the mud;The shallow water doth her force infringe,And renders vain her tail's impetuous swinge;The shining steel her tender sides receive,And there, like bees, they all their weapons leave.

This sees the cub, and does himself opposeBetwixt his cumber'd mother and her foes;With desp'rate courage he receives her wounds,And men and boats his active tail confounds.Their forces join'd, the seas with billows fill,And make a tempest, though the winds be still.Now would the men with half their hopèd preyBe well content, and wish this cub away;Their wish they have: he (to direct his damUnto the gap through which they thither came)Before her swims, and quits the hostile lake,A pris'ner there but for his mother's sake.She, by the rocks compell'd to stay behind,Is by the vastness of her bulk confined.They shout for joy! and now on her aloneTheir fury falls, and all their darts are thrown.Their lances spent, one, bolder than the rest,With his broad sword provoked the sluggish beast;Her oily side devours both blade and haft,And there his steel the bold Bermudan left.Courage the rest from his example take,And now they change the colour of the lake;Blood flows in rivers from her wounded side,As if they would prevent the tardy tide,And raise the flood to that propitious height,As might convey her from this fatal strait.She swims in blood, and blood does spouting throwTo heaven, that heaven men's cruelties might know.Their fixed jav'lins in her side she wears,And on her back a grove of pikes appears;You would have thought, had you the monster seenThus dress'd, she had another island been:Roaring she tears the air with such a noise,As well resembled the conspiring voiceOf routed armies, when the field is won,To reach the ears of her escapèd son.He, though a league removèd from the foe,Hastes to her aid; the pious Trojan so,Neglecting for Creusa's life his own,Repeats the danger of the burning town.The men, amazèd, blush to see the seedOf monsters human piety exceed.Well proves this kindness, what the Grecian sung,That love's bright mother from the ocean sprung.Their courage droops, and hopeless now, they wishFor composition with th'unconquered fish;So she their weapons would restore again,Through rocks they'd hew her passage to the main.But how instructed in each other's mind?Or what commerce can men with monsters find?Not daring to approach their wounded foe,Whom her courageous son protected so,They charge their muskets, and, with hot desireOf fell revenge, renew the fight with fire;Standing aloof, with lead they bruise the scales,And tear the flesh of the incensèd whales.But no success their fierce endeavours found,Nor this way could they give one fatal wound.Now to their fort they are about to sendFor the loud engines which their isle defend;But what those pieces framed to batter walls,Would have effected on those mighty whales,Great Neptune will not have us know, who sendsA tide so high that it relieves his friends.And thus they parted with exchange of harms;Much blood the monsters lost, and they their arms.