Herman Melville- Complete Poems

by Herman Melville

  79.14 dilated Lucifer] See Paradise Lost, IV.985–86.

  80.1 The Surrender at Appomattox] Outnumbered and surrounded, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, effectively bringing the Civil War to an end.

  80.10 sword that Grant received from Lee.] Lee did not literally give his sword to Grant at the surrender.

  82.20 15th of April, 1865] John Wilkes Booth (1838–1865) shot Abraham Lincoln on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.; Lincoln died the following morning.

  83.25–26 A Picture by S. R. Gifford . . . the N.A. Exhibition, April, 1865] A Coming Storm (1865), by Hudson River School painter Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823–1880), appeared in the National Academy of Design’s annual exhibition in New York City in 1865. The painting was listed in the exhibition catalogue as owned by Edwin Booth (1833–1893), the celebrated Shakespearean actor and brother of Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

  84.13 Rebel Color-bearers at Shiloh] The newspaper account of Shiloh that Melville refers to in his note was the lengthy dispatch by Whitelaw Reid (1837–1912) that appeared in the Cincinnati Gazette under the pen name “Agate,” April 14–15, 1862.

  85.19 how Grant met Lee.] Grant’s terms of surrender at Appomattox Court House were as generous as could be expected: Lee’s troops must give up their arms and return home on parole, “not to be disturbed by United States Authority so long as they observe their parole and the laws in force where they may reside.” They were also permitted to keep their privately owned horses and mules.

  87.22 Nineveh of the North] New York City, as described in Melville’s notes.

  88.5–7 Hill . . . Stuart] Lieutenant General A. P. Hill (1825–1865), one of Lee’s corps commanders, killed at Petersburg on April 2, 1865; Brigadier General Turner Ashby (1828–1862), a cavalry commander who served under Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, killed near Harrisonburg, Virginia, on June 6, 1862; Lieutenant General J.E.B. Stuart, Lee’s cavalry commander, fatally wounded at Yellow Tavern, Virginia, on May 11, 1864.

  89.18 “Formerly a Slave”] The painting by Elihu Vedder (1836–1923) appeared in the exhibition catalogue as “Jane Jackson, formerly a slave. . . .”

  90.5 The Apparition] Plausibly about the explosion set off in the Confederate camp at Petersburg, Virginia, from beneath, in a Union tunnel, in July 1864.

  92.11–12 Apollo-like . . . Python] Melville owned an engraving of Turner’s depiction of Apollo slaying the monstrous Python that had survived the Flood. See Clarel (256.33–34).

  93.20 Fierce was Despair] See Paradise Lost, where Moloch, “fiercer by despair” (II.45), votes for open war (II.42–108) while Belial temporizes, fearful of worse punishment (II.108–225).

  95.3 On the Home Guards] The secessionist Missouri State Guard laid siege to Lexington, Missouri, on September 12, 1861, and captured the town on September 20 after fighting in which thirty-nine men from the Lexington garrison, including members of the unionist Missouri Home Guards, were killed.

  95.13 Pea Ridge, Arkansas] The battle of Pea Ridge (or Elkhorn Tavern), fought near Leetown in northwestern Arkansas on March 7–8, 1862, ended in a Union victory.

  96.2 Disaster of the Second Manassas] Also known as Second Bull Run, the battle, fought August 28–30, 1862, between Union forces under John Pope (1822–1892) and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee, ended in a decisive Confederate victory. Union losses in the battle totaled almost 14,000 men killed, wounded, or missing.

  96.13 Victory of Baton Rouge, Louisiana] Union forces repulsed a Confederate attempt to recapture the strategic city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on August 5, 1862. The 14th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment reported that it lost thirty-six men killed in the battle.

  97.6 Marye’s Heights, Fredericksburg] Marye’s Heights, a hill behind the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, was the site of two different battles and is the location of the Fredericksburg National Cemetery, established in 1865. In the battle of Fredericksburg, on December 13, 1862, one of the deadliest of the Civil War, the Army of the Potomac failed to capture Marye’s Heights. Union troops captured the heights on May 3, 1863, during the Second Battle of Fredericksburg, but retreated across the Rappahannock River the next day.

  98.1 On the Slain at Chickamauga] The battle of Chickamauga, fought in northwestern Georgia on September 19–20, 1863, ended in a Confederate victory. The combined Union and Confederate casualties exceeded 34,000 men killed, wounded, or missing.

  98.18 Battle-fields of the Wilderness] See note 56.1.

  99.1–2 On Sherman’s Men . . . Kenesaw Mountain] Union forces lost almost 3,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in an unsuccessful assault on Confederate positions at Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, on June 27, 1864 (see note 75.9–10).

  100.18–19 On a natural Monument in a field of Georgia] From February 1864 to May 1865 more than 45,000 Union soldiers were held at Andersonville prison camp, and almost 13,000 died from malnutrition, disease, and exposure. Andersonville National Cemetery was established on July 26, 1865. Scutari, the Constantinople district mentioned by Melville in his note, was the site of British army hospitals and barracks where more than 5,400 soldiers died during the Crimean War.

  101.15 damasked blade] Fine blade, made in Damascus.

  103.8 Mosby’s men] Confederate cavalry officer John S. Mosby (1833–1916) was given command in January 1863 of a small detachment of Confederate partisan rangers in northern Virginia. Using guerrilla tactics, Mosby raided Union outposts and supply wagons in Fairfax, Prince William, Fauquier, and Loudoun Counties, sometimes striking within fifteen miles of Washington. In April 1864, Melville went to Virginia to visit his cousin Lieutenant Colonel Henry Gansevoort (1835–1871), commander of the 13th New York Cavalry Regiment, and accompanied his men on an expedition into Loudoun County in search of Mosby and his rangers.

  104.9 The Leader] The camp’s commander, Colonel Charles Russell Lowell (1835–1864) of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment, nephew of the poet James Russell Lowell. Mortally wounded at the battle of Cedar Creek, northeast of Strasburg, Virginia, on October 19, 1864, Lowell died the following day.

  104.13 sunny bride] Josephine (Effy) Shaw Lowell (1843–1905), who in her decades as a widow became a prominent national reformer.

  116.31 inward bruise] Henry IV, Part I, I.iii.58.

  116.34 Boots and saddles!] Bugle call warning the cavalry to be ready to mount and ride. (The calls at 10.4 and 104.15 are different.)

  126.2 Lee in the Capitol] Robert E. Lee appeared before the congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction on February 17, 1866, but the speech in Melville’s poem is fictional.

  126.30 Arlington] Arlington House, Mary Custis Lee’s family estate and Lee’s home before the Civil War. In 1864, the estate became the site of Arlington National Cemetery.

  127.5 Of Pope’s impelled retreat] See note 96.2.

  131.2 Sylla’s way] After seizing power by force, the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (139–78 B.C.E.) initiated proscriptions, identifying certain Roman citizens as his enemies and (at the lightest) confiscating their property.

  133.4 fields in Mexico] Many of the officers who fought on opposing sides in the Civil War had served together during the Mexican-American War, 1846–48.

  133.19 on the Hudson’s marge] United States Military Academy at West Point.

  133.33 When Vicksburg fell] On July 4, 1863, the city surrendered after a siege of forty-three days.

  137.26–27 Sarpedon] A slip for Hector, who avenged Sarpedon’s death at the hands of Patroclus, Achilles’ friend. In quoting (without naming) General W. T. Sherman, probably from the April 1866 Hours at Home, Melville omits the words after “avenged his dea
th”: “avenged his death, for the slaughter of the enemy exceeded any thing I have seen during the war.”

  144.34–37 George IV . . . Preston Pans] As Prince Regent, George IV provided a stipend to the last heirs of James II and later contributed to build a monument to the Stuarts in St. Peter’s Basilica. A Highland army led by Prince Charles Stuart defeated British forces at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, on September 21, 1745.

  CLAREL: A POEM AND PILGRIMAGE IN THE HOLY LAND

  Part One: Jerusalem

  161.7–8 Elbow on knee . . . sidelong hand] Clarel’s pose recalls John Keats’s as portrayed by Joseph Severn and William Hilton in their respective paintings, head supported by “sidelong hand”—the word “sidelong” occurring in Endymion, “The Eve of Saint Mark,” and “La Belle Dame Sans Merci.”

  165.34 slim vial] A mezuzah, identifying those who dwell there as Jewish.

  166.19–21 Ten . . . time.] After the twelve tribes, descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob, were exiled to Assyria in the eighth century B.C.E., the ten tribes from northern Israel were assimilated or otherwise lost, leaving the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin to “live on” in the historical record.

  166.33–35 Esdras saith . . . still eastward.] According to 2 Esdras 13:40–50 (in the Apocrypha) the ten tribes traveled a year and a half east of the Euphrates to Azareth, from which, Esdras said, they would return.

  170.30 four Kings’ check] In Genesis 14, Abraham pursues and defeats four kings to rescue his nephew Lot, after which Melchizedek, the King of Salem, blesses Abraham.

  172.18 a’Becket’s slayers] At the instigation of Henry II in 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his cathedral, the four assassins unpunished but dying in Jerusalem, where the Pope had ordered them.

  173.22–23 Ludovico . . . chamber] “Ludovico in the Haunted Chamber” is the title of Leigh Hunt’s excerpt from Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic romance The Mysteries of Udolpho in his 1849 A Book for a Corner.

  174.7 Godfrey and Baldwin] The Crusader Godfrey of Boulogne, Defender of the Holy Sepulcher at the end of the eleventh century, and his brother Baldwin, who succeeded him as King of Jerusalem (1100–1118).

  174.11–12 fancy . . . Imagination] The distinction invoked here is Coleridge’s in his Biographia Literaria: fancy is the trivial organizing power, and imagination the higher creative power.

  174.16 three pale Marys’ frame] The three Marys present at the Crucifixion (John 19:25).

  174.17 she moves] She (Imagination) moves back in time from Lazarus’s house in Bethany to Golgotha.

  174.35 knights so shy] In his Walks About the City and Environs of Jerusalem (184–?), a book purchased by Melville, W. H. Bartlett (1809–1854) quotes Tasso on the humility of the Crusaders on first approaching Jerusalem. He quotes (but does not identify) Gibbon on the Crusaders’ “promiscuous massacre” of “seventy thousand Moslims” and many harmless Jews.

  175.1 to quote Voltaire] The French Enlightenment writer is said to have declared that the Crusades were “an epidemic of fury which lasted two hundred years.”

  175.17 Tancred knew] In Walks About the City, Bartlett quotes Edward Gibbon on the “savage heroes of the cross” of whom only Tancred showed “some sentiments of compassion.”

  176.11 to temple drew] For the feast of Passover; Jesus’s Passover in Jerusalem at age twelve is in Luke 2:41–50.

  178.25 St. Paul] In Acts 27, Paul, a prisoner during a storm at sea, instructs the Roman centurion Julius how to save all the men aboard the ship.

  180.25 Compostel or brown Loret] Two famous destinations for Christian pilgrims: the shrine to the apostle James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and the shrine to the Virgin Mary, her house (made of light brown bricks) miraculously transported first from Nazareth to Croatia, and then from Croatia to Loreto, Italy.

  183.4–5 voice of bridegroom . . . hushed.] In Revelation 18:23, John says that at the fall of Babylon “the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all.”

  183.10 Jaffa Gate] Main western gate to Jerusalem, through which Melville entered the city in 1857.

  183.21 it came in random play] Clarel remembers that Jaffa Gate opens to the road to Emmaus, where Jesus appeared to two followers after his resurrection (Luke 24:13–35).

  184.25–31 book . . . wasteful element] Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, Historical Painter (1853) tells of Keats’s making his friend Joseph Ritchie “promise he would carry his Endymion to the great desert of Sahara and fling it in the midst.”

  185.23 beryl . . . St. John] The eighth foundation of the city John envisions is decorated with beryl (Revelation 21:20).

  185.36 he of Tarsus roved.] After his conversion as an apostle for Christianity, Paul, originally named Saul (Acts of the Apostles 13:9), born in the city of Tarsus (in present-day Turkey) and fortunate in being a Roman citizen, “roved” Turkey and Greece on three trips, then went to Italy, where he was martyred. In 2 Corinthians 11:25–27, Paul summarizes some perils and pains of his “journeyings.”

  186.5 fluttering like tongues] Acts 2 describes how, after Jesus has risen to heaven, the Holy Spirit in a “rushing mighty wind” filled the house where his apostles had gathered on Pentecost. When “cloven tongues like as of fire” sat upon them, they could speak all the languages of the region and thus spread the news of Jesus.

  186.17 Ravens and angels] In 1 Kings 17:6, ravens bring Elijah bread and flesh morning and evening while he is hiding from the evil King Ahab.

  186.34 A Santon] An Islamic holy man, allowed free movement.

  188.14–27 serial wrecks . . . Glenroy’s tiers] This list of wrecks buried beneath Jerusalem concludes with an allusion to the strata at Glen Roy, in the Highlands of Scotland, the subject of respectfully argued theories of Charles Darwin, Louis Agassiz, and others.

  189.12–13 “Adonijah . . . Zoheleth.”] 1 Kings 1 tells of Adonijah’s futile opposition to Solomon’s succeeding David and his sacrificing at the sacred stone of Zoheleth.

  189.40 The field of blood . . . Aceldama] The panicked Judas gave his thirty pieces of silver (for which he betrayed Jesus) to the chief priests. Wary because it was blood money, they used it to buy the potter’s field Aceldama known forever afterward as “the Field of Blood” (Matthew 27:3–10; Acts 1:16–19).

  190.6 Christ’s resort] The Mount of Olives. See Luke 21:37: “And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.”

  193.16 Christ’s bondman] Jesus’s slave, Nehemiah.

  194.24 Absalom’s locks but Æsop’s hump] 2 Samuel 14:25: “[I]n all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.” Aesop, the putative writer of fables, was depicted as hideous; in his lecture “Statues in Rome” Melville described a bust in which Aesop was “dwarfed and deformed,” though enlivened “by a lambent gleam of irony.”

  198.2 arch named Ecce Homo] One of the stations along the route to the Crucifixion. In John 19:1–5 Pilate displays the scourged and mocked Jesus to the crowd, saying “Behold the man.”

  198.25 My God . . . forsakest me?] Matthew 27:46.

  200.30–31 Savonarola’s zeal . . . died out] The religious and political zeal of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498) ended when he was hanged and his body burned (with sticks of wood, fagots).

  200.32–33 Leopardi . . . St. Stephen] Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837), the miserably frail Italian philologist and poet who died at forty, skeptical of any optimism, metaphorically stoned himself to death with grief, but Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was killed with real stones (Acts 7:59–60).

  201.19–20 looking down
. . . vacant glen] These lines recall Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The City in the Sea.”

  205.34 the Ezan] Islamic call to worship.

  209.15 Levite trains] The Levites were not priests but servants of the Temple.

  209.34 Shaddai] Jehovah.

  211.17 features finely Hagrene] Resembling those of Hagar, Abraham’s concubine and mother of Ishmael.

  214.11 the Slide! the Slide!] Melville quotes Hawthorne’s “The Ambitious Guest.”

  214.26 dusty book] The floured book is Thomas Paine’s Deistic The Age of Reason (1794 and later), which was banned in England, and condemned in the United States for its hostility to organized religions, and its denial of special revelations.

  216.8 Favonius] The west wind.

  216.20 Ceres] Roman goddess of fertility and agriculture.

  217.8 Nerea’s amorous net] Nerea, one of the Greek sea-nymphs.

  219.30 Pequod wilds] The southern New England forests inhabited by the Pequod or Pequot Indians.

  221.27 Angelico] Fra Angelico (1387–1455), the great Florentine painter, known best for his frescoes.

  224.15 faith’s receding wave.] In Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” the “Sea of Faith,” once full, withdraws.

  226.30 Horeb] Mount Sinai.

  228.29 Uz] Empty wasteland mentioned prominently in Job.

  230.9–10 the angel succorer . . . Peter dungeoned.] Acts 12:1–19.

  230.21–22 affright . . . Eliphaz the Temanite] The fright of Eliphaz the Temanite, one of Job’s three “comforters,” is described in Job 4:13–16.

  233.24 tipstaves] Officers, each with a metal-tipped staff. In Matthew 26:47, Judas brings to Gethsemane “a great multitude with swords and staves, sent from the chief priests and elders of the people.” They take Jesus away, by an unspecified route.