Excerpt from John Marr and Other Poems 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 love able freshness of personality, which his philo sophical dej eetion never quenched, is every where 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 M arr in their entirety and added those others from his Battle Pieces, Timoleon, etc., that best indicate the quality of their author's per sonality. The prose Supplement to Battle Pieces has been included because it does so much to explain the feeling of his war verse and further because it is such a remarkably wise and clear commentary upon those con fused and troublous days of post-war recon struction. H. C. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

晩年のヘルマン・メルヴィルが世に問うた本作は、大海原の記憶を抱き、陸の孤独に沈む老水夫の魂の叫びです。荒削りながら情熱的な韻文は、巨匠が到達した究極の精神世界を映します。過去の戦友への思慕が綴られる様は、人間の実存を問う哲学的深淵へと読者を誘うのです。 映像化作品では、詩篇に漂う海の静寂が視覚的に補完され、メルヴィルの内面がより立体的に立ち上がります。映像が荘厳な風景を具現化する一方、テキストは老水夫の胸にある言葉にならぬ寂寥感を深く掘り下げます。両者が共鳴することで、不滅の文豪が遺した孤独な詩情は、私たちの心に一層強く響き渡るでしょう。