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The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Marr and Other Poems, by Herman Melville
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: John Marr and Other Poems
Author: Herman Melville
Release Date: July 7, 2004 [EBook #12841]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
- START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN MARR AND OTHER POEMS ***
Produced by Geoff Palmer
JOHN MARR AND OTHER POEMS
By
HERMAN MELVILLE
With An Introductory Note By
HENRY CHAPIN
MCMXXII
Introductory Note
Melville's verse printed for the most part privately in small editions from middle life onward after his great prose work had been written, taken as a whole, is of an amateurish and uneven quality. In it, however, that loveable freshness of personality, which his philosophical dejection never quenched, is everywhere in evidence. It is clear that he did not set himself to master the poet's art, yet through the mask of conventional verse which often falls into doggerel, the voice of a true poet is heard. In
selecting the pieces for this volume I have put in the vigorous sea verses of John Marr in their entirety and added those others from his Battle Pieces_, _Timoleon, etc., that best indicate the quality of their author's personality. The prose supplement to battle pieces has been included because it does so much to explain the