To the editor:
I enjoyed William P. Perry’s recent article about Herman Melville’s poetry. If it weren’t for “Moby-Dick,” there is little chance I would be writing a Letter to the Editor about his poetry nearly 150 after his death. Good for Mr. Perry for sharing Melville’s quote, by way of characterizing his epic Clarel, “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
It is because he wrote “Moby-Dick” that lovers of American literature are interested in everything he wrote. Besides the poems quoted in the article, one that would charm even non-English majors is this one:
Art
In placid hours well-pleased we dream
Of many a brave unbodied scheme.
But form to lend, pulsed life create,
What unlike things must meet and mate:
A flame to melt—a wind to freeze;
Sad patience—joyous energies;
Humility—yet pride and scorn;
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity—reverence. These must mate,
And fuse with Jacob’s mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel—Art.
Dave Read
Lenox
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