One would guess that “The Portent” is far and away Herman Melville’s most well-known poem (perhaps the only poem of his remembered or read by anyone other than an academic). It opens his book Battle-Pieces…
Posts tagged john brown
The Poet Attempts To Explain His Poem
Common Errant: What goes into the making of your poems? Nemesis-Poet: Who knows? CE: One presumes you know. Or perhaps that you know something of this. NP: Well, I can only offer an interpretation and…
What Like a Bullet Can Undeceive!
Some poems from Melville’s Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War. The Portent. (1859.) Hanging from the beam, Slowly swaying (such the law), Gaunt the shadow on your green, Shenandoah! The cut is on the…
The Unambiguous Ethic of Power
The “framing text” is a section from Simone de Beauvior’s 1947 book The Ethics of Ambiguity, “The Antinomies of Action”. Indented, intrusive text is Errant and clearly labeled. *** As we have seen, if the…