Monody
Monody
Original Text
Collected Poems of Herman Melville, ed. Howard P. Vincent (Chicago: Packard, 1947): 228-29. PS 2382 V5 Robarts Library
2 After loneness long;
3And then to be estranged in life,
4 And neither in the wrong;
5And now for death to set his seal --
6 Ease me, a little ease, my song!
7By wintry hills his hermit-mound
8 The sheeted snow-drifts drape,
9And houseless there the snow-bird flits
11Glazed now with ice the cloistral vine
Notes
1] monody: dirge him: this might be Nathaniel Hawthorne, or possibly Melville's son Malcolm. Back to Line
10] crape: mourning band made of thin worsted cloth. Back to Line
12] A line found in Melville's manuscript copy, altered from "Along thy dense stolidity of walls" in the printed edition. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1891
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2003
Rhyme