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
0. 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