The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Marr and Other Poems, by Herman Melville

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: John Marr and Other Poems

Author: Herman Melville

Release Date: July 7, 2004 [EBook #12841]

Language: English

*** 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 May-time o' pennoned young
    fellows
This stripped old hulk here for years may
    survive.

Ere yet, long ago, we were spliced, Bonny