Herman Melville Poems

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:
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When ocean-clouds over inland hills
Sweep storming in late autumn brown,
And horror the sodden valley fills,
And the spire falls crashing in the town,
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I

Where the wings of a sunny Dome expand
I saw a Banner in gladsome air-
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O Pride of the days in prime of the months
Now trebled in great renown,
When before the ark of our holy cause
Fell Dagon down-
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One noonday, at my window in the town,
I saw a sight - saddest that eyes can see -
Young soldiers marching lustily
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Gold in the mountain,
And gold in the glen,
And greed in the heart,
Heaven having no part,
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The sufferance of her race is shown,
And retrospect of life,
Which now too late deliverance dawns upon;
Yet is she not at strife.
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Skimming lightly, wheeling still,
The swallows fly low
Over the field in clouded days,
The forest-field of Shiloh --
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About the Shark, phlegmatical one,
Pale sot of the Maldive sea,
The sleek little pilot-fish, azure and slim,
How alert in attendance be.
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Good Friday was the day
Of the prodigy and crime,
...