"Oh! ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass; who standing among flowers can say- here, here lies my beloved; ye know not the desolation that broods in bosoms like these. What bitter blanks in those black-bordered marbles which cover no ashes!"
Musing: Like many sailors who visit the chapel prior to taking leave of solid earth, Ishmael goes to the chapel before he sails as well. The chapel is filled with mourning wives and mothers and ship-mates. The parishioners sit and silently read the marble inscriptions on the walls that list the names of the dead and serve as tombstones. I'd never thought before of the despair one might feel at not knowing where one's loved one was buried. The beauty of the language in The Chapel and in the sermon to come, to me, change the tone in the book to a more somber one.