Selected Poems (Melville, Herman)

by Melville, Herman

• ISBN13: 9780143039037
• ISBN10: 0143039032
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-27
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

A comprehensive collection of the poetry of a presiding genius of American literature While best known for such novels as his monumental Moby-Dick, Herman Melville was also an extraordinarily gifted poet. This is the most complete anthology of Melville’s poetry ever published in a single volume. It features a large selection from Battle-Piecesand Aspects of the War, along with Melville’s own notes and prose supplement; cantos from all four books of Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land; selections from Melville’s later books, Timoleon, John Marr and Other Sailors, and Weeds and Wildings, Chiefly, with a Rose or Two; as well as a number of his powerful and lesserknown uncollected poems. This volume will usher in a new appreciation for Melville’s poetic gifts.

Author Biography

Herman Melville (1819-û1891) worked as a bank clerk and schoolteacher before shipping off on a whaler bound for the Pacific. On the basis of this experience, he wrote many successful travel memoirs and novels, culminating in the monumental Moby-Dick.
Robert Faggen is associate professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College. He edited the poetry of Robert Frost for Penguin Classics.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. x
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. xliii
A Note on the Texts	p. xlv
From Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)
The Portent	p. 7
Misgivings	p. 8
The Conflict of Convictions	p. 9
Apathy and Enthusiasm	p. 12
The March into Virginia	p. 14
Ball's Bluff	p. 16
DuPont's Round Fight	p. 17
Donelson	p. 18
In the Turret	p. 32
The Temeraire	p. 34
A Utilitarian View of the Monitor's Fight	p. 37
Shiloh	p. 39
Battle of Stone River, Tennessee	p. 40
The House-top	p. 42
The Armies of the Wilderness	p. 43
On the Photograph of a Corps Commander	p. 51
The Swamp Angel	p. 52
Sheridan at Cedar Creek	p. 54
The College Colonel	p. 56
A Dirge for McPherson	p. 58
At the Cannon's Mouth	p. 60
The March to the Sea	p. 62
The Frenzy in the Wake	p. 65
The Surrender at Appomattox	p. 67
A Canticle	p. 68
The Martyr	p. 70
"The Coming Storm"	p. 72
Rebel Color-bearers at Shiloh	p. 73
The Muster	p. 75
"Formerly a Slave."	p. 77
Magnanimity Baffled	p. 78
On the Slain Collegians	p. 79
America	p. 81
Verses Inscriptive and Memorial	p. 83
On the Home Guards	p. 83
The Fortitude of the North	p. 83
An Uninscribed Monument	p. 83
On the Grave	p. 84
On a Natural Monument	p. 84
Commemorative of a Naval Victory	p. 85
The Scout toward Aldie	p. 87
Lee in the Capitol	p. 112
A Meditation	p. 118
Supplement	p. 121
From Clarel (1876)
Jerusalem	p. 133
The Hostel	p. 133
Of the Crusaders	p. 138
The Arch	p. 139
Nathan	p. 142
The Wilderness	p. 153
Of Mortmain	p. 153
Of Deserts	p. 157
Concerning Hebrews	p. 160
The Inscription	p. 164
Mortmain Reappears	p. 167
Prelusive	p. 169
Sodom	p. 170
Mar Saba	p. 175
The High Desert	p. 175
Rolfe and the Palm	p. 180
Empty Stirrups	p. 183
Bethlehem	p. 186
Derwent and Ungar	p. 186
Ungar and Rolfe	p. 190
The Valley of Decision	p. 194
Dirge	p. 199
Passion Week	p. 199
Easter	p. 202
Via Crucis	p. 205
Epilogue	p. 206
From John Marr and Other Sailors (1888)
John Marr and Other Sailors	p. 211
John Marr	p. 211
Tom Deadlight	p. 217
Jack Roy	p. 219
Sea-Pieces	p. 221
The Haglets	p. 221
Minor Sea-Pieces	p. 229
The Man-of-War Hawk	p. 229
The Tuft of Kelp	p. 229
The Maldive Shark	p. 229
Crossing the Tropics	p. 230
The Berg	p. 231
The Enviable Isles	p. 232
Pebbles	p. 233
From Timoleon (1891)
Timoleon	p. 237
After the Pleasure Party	p. 244
The Night-march	p. 249
The Ravaged Villa	p. 250
The Margrave's Birthnight	p. 251
Magian Wine	p. 253
The Garden of Metrodorus	p. 254
The Weaver	p. 255
Lamia's Song	p. 256
In a Garret	p. 257
Monody	p. 258
Lone Founts	p. 259
The Bench of Boors	p. 260
The Enthusiast	p. 261
Art	p. 262
Buddha	p. 263
C-'s Lament	p. 264
Shelley's Vision	p. 265
Fragments of a Lost Gnostic Poem of the Twelfth Century	p. 266
The Marchioness of Brinvilliers	p. 267
The Age of the Antonines	p. 268
Herba Santa	p. 269
Fruit of Travel Long Ago	p. 272
Venice	p. 272
In a Bye-Canal	p. 272
Pisa's Leaning Tower	p. 273
In a Church of Padua	p. 274
Milan Cathedral	p. 274
The Parthenon	p. 275
Greek Masonry	p. 276
Greek Architecture	p. 276
The Apparition	p. 277
In the Desert	p. 277
The Great Pyramid	p. 278
From Weeds and Wildings Chiefly: With a Rose or Two (1924)
Clover	p. 283
The Little Good-Fellows	p. 284
Trophies of Peace	p. 285
The American Aloe on Exhibition	p. 286
The New Rosicrucians	p. 287
Miscellaneous Poems
The New Ancient of Days	p. 291
Immolated	p. 294
The Rusty Man	p. 295
Camoens	p. 296
Montaigne and His Kitten	p. 298
Gold in the Mountain	p. 299
A Spirit Appeared to Me	p. 300
Hearts-of-gold	p. 301
Pontoosuce	p. 302
Billy in the Darbies (from Billy Budd)	p. 306
Notes	p. 307
Index of First Lines	p. 334
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