Herman Melville- Complete Poems

by Herman Melville

  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
/>   Canto 22

  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,