Herman Melville, a Poet of the Civil War

Writing and research can take you down some unexpected alleyways. 

For the last two-plus years, I’ve been involved in a writing project about the Civil War. Along the way, I learned that stories passed down as family lore turned out to be, well, stories of the fictional if well-meaning kind. History can teach you a lot about where you came from.

 

Part of my research has been reading novels and poetry about and from the Civil War. As I started, two poets who immediately came to mind were Walt Whitman (“O Captain! My Captain!”) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (“Christmas Bells” and “A Nameless Grave,” not to mention his poems on slavery). One poet I did not consider, simply because I was ignorant of his poems, was Herman Melville (1819-1891). 

 

In this case, my ignorance was rather profound. Only when I saw a listing in a promotional advertising flyer for Melville: Complete Poems from the Library of America did I discover that Melville was not only a novelist but also a poet. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday readings

 

Old Man’s Watch – poem by Paul Wittenberger at Paul’s Substack.

 

Musee des Beaux Arts – poem by W.H. Auden at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

At Dorr Point – poem by Kevin Farnham at society of Classical Poets.

 

A King Among Fools and Flatterers – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Convergence of the Twain, poem by Thomas Hardy – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Going for Ice Cream – poem by Sara and Sonia Barkat at Everyday Poems.