Cetology Dave Malloy (Ft. Manik Choksi & Original A.R.T. Cast of Moby Dick)

[ISHMAEL]
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep
But soon we shall be lost in its harborless, unshored immensities
So ere that come to pass
Let us get into the famous long and boring whaling chapters
I shall start by classifying all the whales
But this is a ponderous task
And I should not pretend to be exhaustive, for who am I
That I should try to hook Levaithan's nose?
Though I have sailed and swum through vast oceans and libraries
Still I'm sometimes dumb about things outside my mind
Everything I read might be wrong, sometimes libraries lie
Though I never mean to steer you wrong, I just might be unreliable

I am on my own; it's just me and my heart broke head
And the ocean is too deep for me to fathom
Life is just too big for me to bear
But who am I to compare my despair with the shaking of the sea?
Who am I to give voice to voices I can never be?

But though I'm bound to fail
Let's define a whale:
A whale is a spouting fish with a horizontal tail
There you have him
And we may classify him thus: