John Marr and Other Poems

The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Marr and Other Poems, by Herman Melville
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Title: John Marr and Other Poems
Author: Herman Melville
Release Date: July 7, 2004 [EBook #12841]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
? START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN MARR AND OTHER POEMS ***
Produced by Geoff Palmer
JOHN MARR AND OTHER POEMS
By
HERMAN MELVILLE
With An Introductory Note By?HENRY CHAPIN
MCMXXII
Introductory Note
Melville's verse printed for the most part privately in small editions from middle life onward after his great prose work had been written, taken as a whole, is of an amateurish and uneven quality. In it, however, that loveable freshness of personality, which his philosophical dejection never quenched, is everywhere in evidence. It is clear that he did not set himself to master the poet's art, yet through the mask of conventional verse which often falls into doggerel, the voice of a true poet is heard. In?selecting the pieces for this volume I have put in the vigorous sea verses of John Marr in their entirety and added those others from his Battle Pieces_, _Timoleon, etc., that best indicate the quality of their author's personality. The prose supplement to battle pieces has been included because it does so much to explain the feeling of his war verse and further because it is such a remarkably wise and clear commentary upon those confused and troublous days of post-war reconstruction. H. C.
CONTENTS
Introductory Note
John Marr And Other Poems?JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS?BRIDEGROOM DICK?TOM DEADLIGHT?JACK ROY
Sea Pieces?THE HAGLETS?THE AEOLIAN HARP?TO THE MASTER OF THE "METEOR"?FAR OFF SHORE?THE MAN-OF-WAR HAWK?THE FIGURE-HEAD?THE GOOD CRAFT "SNOW BIRD"?OLD COUNSEL?THE TUFT OF KELP?THE MALDIVE SHARK?TO NED?CROSSING THE TROPICS?THE BERG?THE ENVIABLE ISLES?PEBBLES
Poems From Timoleon?LINES TRACED UNDER AN IMAGE OF AMOR THREATENING?THE NIGHT MARCH?THE RAVAGED VILLA?THE NEW ZEALOT TO THE SUN?MONODY?LONE FOUNTS?THE BENCH OF BOORS?ART?THE ENTHUSIAST?SHELLEY'S VISION?THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS?THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES?HERBA SANTA?OFF CAPE COLONNA?THE APPARITION?L' ENVOI
Supplement
Poems From Battle Pieces?THE PORTENT?FROM THE CONFLICT OF CONVICTIONS?THE MARCH INTO VIRGINIA?BALL'S BLUFF?THE STONE FLEET?THE "TEMERAIRE"?A UTILITARIAN VIEW OF THE "MONITOR'S" FIGHT?MALVERN HILL?STONEWALL JACKSON?THE HOUSE-TOP?CHATTANOOGA?ON THE PHOTOGRAPH OF A CORPS COMMANDER?THE SWAMP ANGEL?SHERIDAN AT CEDAR CREEK?IN THE PRISON PEN?THE COLLEGE COLONEL?THE MARTYR?REBEL COLOR-BEARERS AT SHILOH?AURORA BOREALIS?THE RELEASED REBEL PRISONER?"FORMERLY A SLAVE"?ON THE SLAIN COLLEGIANS?AMERICA?INSCRIPTION?THE FORTITUDE OF THE NORTH?THE MOUND BY THE LAKE?ON THE SLAIN AT CHICKAMAUGA?AN UNINSCRIBED MONUMENT?ON THE GRAVE OF A YOUNG CAVALRY OFFICER?KILLED IN THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA?A REQUIEM?COMMEMORATIVE OF A NAVAL VICTORY?A MEDITATION
Poems From Mardi?WE FISH?INVOCATION?DIRGE?MARLENA?PIPE SONG?SONG OF YOOMY GOLD?THE LAND OF LOVE
Poems From Clarel?DIRGE?EPILOGUE
JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS
JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS
Since as in night's deck-watch ye show,?Why, lads, so silent here to me,?Your watchmate of times long ago??Once, for all the darkling sea,?You your voices raised how clearly,?Striking in when tempest sung;?Hoisting up the storm-sail cheerly,?Life is storm--let storm! you rung.?Taking things as fated merely,?Childlike though the world ye spanned;?Nor holding unto life too dearly,?Ye who held your lives in hand--?Skimmers, who on oceans four?Petrels were, and larks ashore.
O, not from memory lightly flung,?Forgot, like strains no more availing,?The heart to music haughtier strung;?Nay, frequent near me, never staleing,?Whose good feeling kept ye young.?Like tides that enter creek or stream,?Ye come, ye visit me, or seem?Swimming out from seas of faces,?Alien myriads memory traces,?To enfold me in a dream!
I yearn as ye. But rafts that strain,?Parted, shall they lock again??Twined we were, entwined, then riven,?Ever to new embracements driven,?Shifting gulf-weed of the main!?And how if one here shift no more,?Lodged by the flinging surge ashore??Nor less, as now, in eve's decline,?Your shadowy fellowship is mine.?Ye float around me, form and feature:--?Tattooings, ear-rings, love-locks curled;?Barbarians of man's simpler nature,?Unworldly servers of the world.?Yea, present all, and dear to me,?Though shades, or scouring China's sea.
Whither, whither, merchant-sailors,?Whitherward now in roaring gales??Competing still, ye huntsman-whalers,?In leviathan's wake what boat prevails??And man-of-war's men, whereaway??If now no dinned drum beat to quarters?On the wilds of midnight waters--?Foemen looming through the spray;?Do yet your gangway lanterns, streaming,?Vainly strive to pierce below,?When, tilted from the slant plank gleaming,?A brother you see to darkness go?
But, gunmates lashed in shotted canvas,?If where long watch-below ye keep,?Never the shrill "All hands up hammocks!"?Breaks the spell that charms your sleep,?And summoning trumps might vainly call,?And booming guns implore--?A beat, a heart-beat musters all,?One heart-beat at heart-core.?It musters. But to clasp, retain;?To see you at the halyards main--?To hear your chorus once again!
BRIDEGROOM DICK?1876
Sunning ourselves in October on a day?Balmy as spring, though the year was in decay,?I lading my pipe, she stirring her tea,?My old woman she says to me,?"Feel ye, old man, how the season mellows?"?And why should I not, blessed heart alive,?Here mellowing myself, past sixty-five,?To think o' the