Canto 13
The Arch
Canto 14
In the Glen
Canto 15
Under the Minaret
Canto 16
The Wall of Wail
Canto 17
Nathan
Canto 18
Night
Canto 19
The Fulfilment
Canto 20
Vale of Ashes
Canto 21
By-Places
Canto 22
Hermitage
Canto 23
The Close
Canto 24
The Gibe
Canto 25
Huts
Canto 26
The Gate of Zion
Canto 27
Matron and Maid
Canto 28
Tomb and Fountain
Canto 29
The Recluse
Canto 30
The Site of the Passion
Canto 31
Rolfe
Canto 32
Of Rama
Canto 33
By the Stone
Canto 34
They Tarry
Canto 35
Arculf and Adamnan
Canto 36
The Tower
Canto 37
A Sketch
Canto 38
The Sparrow
Canto 39
Clarel and Ruth
Canto 40
The Mounds
Canto 41
On the Wall
Canto 42
Tidings
Canto 43
A Procession
Canto 44
The Start
PART TWO • THE WILDERNESS
Canto 1
The Cavalcade
Canto 2
The Skull Cap
Canto 3
By the Garden
Canto 4
Of Mortmain
Canto 5
Clarel and Glaucon
Canto 6
The Hamlet
Canto 7
Guide and Guard
Canto 8
Rolfe and Derwent
Canto 9
Through Adommin
Canto 10
A Halt
Canto 11
Of Deserts
Canto 12
The Banker
Canto 13
Flight of the Greeks
Canto 14
By Achor
Canto 15
The Fountain
Canto 16
Night in Jericho
Canto 17
In Mid-Watch
Canto 18
The Syrian Monk
Canto 19
An Apostate
Canto 20
Under the Mountain
Canto 21
The Priest and Rolfe
Canto 22
Concerning Hebrews
Canto 23
By the Jordan
Canto 24
The River-Rite
Canto 25
The Dominican
Canto 26
Of Rome
Canto 27
Vine and Clarel
Canto 28
The Fog
Canto 29
By the Marge
Canto 30
Of Petra
Canto 31
The Inscription
Canto 32
The Encampment
Canto 33
Lot’s Sea
Canto 34
Mortmain Reappears
Canto 35
Prelusive
Canto 36
Sodom
Canto 37
Of Traditions
Canto 38
The Sleep-Walker
Canto 39
Obsequies
PART THREE • MAR SABA
Canto 1
In the Mountain
Canto 2
The Carpenter
Canto 3
Of the Many Mansions
Canto 4
The Cypriote
Canto 5
The High Desert
Canto 6
Derwent
Canto 7
Bell and Cairn
Canto 8
Tents of Kedar
Canto 9
Of Monasteries
Canto 10
Before the Gate
Canto 11
The Beaker
Canto 12
The Timoneer’s Story
Canto 13
Song and Recitative
Canto 14
The Revel Closed
Canto 15
In Moonlight
Canto 16
The Easter Fire
Canto 17
A Chant
Canto 18
The Minster
Canto 19
The Masque
Canto 20
Afterwards
Canto 21
In Confidence
The Medallion
Canto 23
Derwent with the Abbot
Canto 24
Vault and Grotto
Canto 25
Derwent and the Lesbian
Canto 26
Vine and the Palm
Canto 27
Man and Bird
Canto 28
Mortmain and the Palm
Canto 29
Rolfe and the Palm
Canto 30
The Celibate
Canto 31
The Recoil
Canto 32
Empty Stirrups
PART FOUR • BETHLEHEM
Canto 1
In Saddle
Canto 2
The Ensign
Canto 3
The Island
Canto 4
An Intruder
Canto 5
Of the Stranger
Canto 6
Bethlehem
Canto 7
At Table
Canto 8
The Pillow
Canto 9
The Shepherds’ Dale
Canto 10
A Monument
Canto 11
Disquiet
Canto 12
Of Pope and Turk
Canto 13
The Church of the Star
Canto 14
Soldier and Monk
Canto 15
Symphonies
Canto 16
The Convent Roof
Canto 17
A Transition
Canto 18
The Hillside
Canto 19
A New-Comer
Canto 20
Derwent and Ungar
Canto 21
Ungar and Rolfe
Canto 22
Of Wickedness the Word
Canto 23
Derwent and Rolfe
Canto 24
Twilight
Canto 25
The Invitation
Canto 26
The Prodigal
Canto 27
By Parapet
Canto 28
David’s Well
Canto 29
The Night Ride
Canto 30
The Valley of Decision
Canto 31
Dirge
Canto 32
Passion Week
Canto 33
Easter
Canto 34
Via Crucis
Canto 35
Epilogue
PART 1
Jerusalem
1. THE HOSTEL
IN CHAMBER low and scored by time,
Masonry old, late washed with lime—
Much like a tomb new-cut in stone;
Elbow on knee, and brow sustained
All motionless on sidelong hand,
A student sits, and broods alone.
The small deep casement sheds a ray
Which tells that in the Holy Town
It is the passing of the day—
The Vigil of Epiphany.
Beside him in the narrow cell
His luggage lies unpacked; thereon
The dust lies, and on him as well—
The dust of travel. But anon
His face he lifts—in feature fine,
Yet pale, and all but feminine
But for the eye and serious brow—
Then rises, paces to and fro,
And pauses, saying, “Other cheer
Than that anticipated here,
By me the learner, now I find.
Theology, art thou so blind?
What means this naturalistic knell
In lieu of Siloh’s oracle
Which here should murmur? Snatched from grace,
And waylaid in the holy place!
Not thus it was but yesterday
Off Jaffa on the clear blue sea;
Nor thus, my heart, it was with thee
Landing amid the shouts and spray;
Nor thus when mounted, full equipped,
Out through the vaulted gate we slipped
Beyond the walls where gardens bright
With bloom and blossom cheered the sight.
“The plain we crossed. In afternoon,
How like our early autumn bland—
So softly tempered for a boon—
The breath of Sharon’s prairie land!
And was it, yes, her titled Rose,
That scarlet poppy oft at hand?
Then Ramleh gleamed, the sail-white town
At even. There I watched day close
From the fair tower, the suburb one:
Seaward and dazing set the sun:
Inland I turned me toward the wall
Of Ephraim, stretched in purple pall.
Romance of mountains! But in end
What change the near approach could lend.
“The start this morning—gun and lance
Against the quarter-moon’s low tide;
The thieves’ huts where we hushed the ride;
Chill day-break in the lorn advance;
In stony strait the scorch of noon,
Thrown off by crags, reminding one
Of those hot paynims whose fierce hands
Flung showers of Afric’s fiery sands
In face of that crusader-king,
Louis, to wither so his wing;
And, at the last, aloft for goal,
Like the ice-bastions round the Pole,
Thy blank, blank towers, Jerusalem!”
Again he droops, with brow on hand.
But, starting up, “Why, well I knew
Salem to be no Samarcand;
’Twas scarce surprise; and yet first view
Brings this eclipse. Needs be my soul,
Purged by the desert’s subtle air
From bookish vapors, now is heir
To nature’s influx of control;
Comes likewise now to consciousness
Of the true import of that press
Of inklings which in travel late
Through Latin lands, did vex my state,
And somehow seemed clandestine. Ah!
These under-formings in the mind,
Banked corals whic
h ascend from far,
But little heed men that they wind
Unseen, unheard—till lo, the reef—
The reef and breaker, wreck and grief.
But here unlearning, how to me
Opes the expanse of time’s vast sea!
Yes, I am young, but Asia old.
The books, the books not all have told.
“And, for the rest, the facile chat
Of overweenings—what was that
The grave one said in Jaffa lane
Whom there I met, my countryman,
But new-returned from travel here;
Some word of mine provoked the strain;
His meaning now begins to clear:
Let me go over it again:—
“Our New World’s worldly wit so shrewd
Lacks the Semitic reverent mood,
Herman Melville- Complete Poems Page 15