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John Marr and Other Poems

by Herman Melville (1819–1891)

  • Free to read
  • 1 hour to read
  • 12 chapters
  • Reading level: 7th grade

"John Marr and Other Poems" by Herman Melville is a poetry collection published in 1888. Melville privately printed only twenty-five copies at his own expense for family and friends. The volume features nautical-themed poems exploring the lives of sailors and the sea, assembled during the same period Melville drafted "Billy Budd." The title poem follows an old sailor who leaves the ocean for prairie life, where he struggles to connect with religious pioneers who cannot relate to his seafaring stories.

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  • Sea poetry

Read the opening

Chapter II

Though the Clerk of the Weather insist,
And lay down the weather-law,
Pintado and gannet they wist
That the winds blow whither they list
In tempest or flaw.

Old are the creeds, but stale the schools,
Revamped as the mode may veer,
But Orm from the schools to the beaches strays
And, finding a Conch hoar with time, he delays
And reverent lifts it to ear.
That Voice, pitched in far monotone,
Shall it swerve? shall it deviate ever?
The Seas have inspired it, and Truth—
Truth, varying from sameness never.

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Contents

  1. Front Matter
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter VII
  5. Chapter II
  6. Chapter IV
  7. Chapter VI
  8. Chapter I
  9. Chapter II
  10. Chapter III
  11. Chapter IV
  12. Epilogue

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About this edition

This free edition of John Marr and Other Poems by Herman Melville comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #12841, released 2004-07-07. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Poetry, American Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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