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.When he wrote itplace where sadness and worry depart, the Envi- he was already celebrated as the author of TYPEEable Isles lull their visitors into a state in whichand had completed its successor, OMOO.Hisno extremes of emotion indeed, few sensationsfriend EVERT A.DUYCKINCK was just beginning hisor thoughts at all persist.Those who inhabitjob as editor of a new weekly called the LITERARYthe isles are  cheek-flushed myriads who  lie WORLD, and he asked Melville to review Browne sdimpling in dream. Though their dreams seem book (and perhaps Ringbolt s) for the journal.to be pleasant enough to make them smile and Melville s largely positive review not surprisinglyblush, they are nonetheless  unconscious slum- contained numerous autobiographical references.berers mere, lost in perpetual sleep.It was published anonymously and without a title90  Fall of Richmond.The tidings received in the Northern Metropolis.(April, 1865.), Thein the March 6, 1847, issue of the Literary World, 1865, four years after the opening shots of thefor which Melville would review other books.war were fired on Fort Sumter.The fall of Rich-mond spelled the end of a long, bloody war, andin this poem Melville appears to exult with otherNortherners in their mutual victory.Upon closer Fall of Richmond.Theexamination, however, the excesses of the lan-guage in the poem for example, the Confederacytidings received in theis referred to as  helmed dilated Lucifer  indi-Northern Metropolis.(April,cate that he was at odds with the sentiments ofthose Unionists who would not just glory in their1865.), The (1866)victory, but also seek to destroy their former foe.Poem in BATTLE-PIECES.In a prefatory note to Other components of Battle-Pieces make it clearhis volume of CIVIL WAR poetry, Melville wrote, that Melville s volume was intended to honor the With few exceptions, the Pieces in this volume heroism shown by both sides in the conflict andoriginated in an impulse imparted by the fall of to mourn the loss of Americans from both NorthRichmond [Virginia], which took place in April and South.The fall of Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War inspired Melville s poem in Battle-Pieces that satirizes theshallow patriotism of war poetry.(Library of Congress) Fiddler, The 91his new acquaintance s cheerfulness, Helmstone at Falstaff s Lament Overfirst thinks Hautboy a sort of happy idiot; he can-Prince Hal Become Henrynot understand why Standard compares Hautboywith Master Betty (William Henry West Betty), anV (1947)English child actor who made a fortune when youngbut retired, disillusioned, at 33.Then Hautboy takesPoem.One of more than 40 poems left uncollectedout his violin and begins to play with extraordinaryor unpublished when Melville died,  Falstaff sskill.Standard explains that Hautboy, like Betty,Lament apparently was written much earlier.Thehad been a prodigy but grew tired of its demands,poem reads, however, like many of the others writ-changed his name, and now happily teaches violin.ten late in Melville s life when he, like Falstaff inThe story ends with Helmstone destroying his man-his poem, is left to consider old age and the fleetinguscripts, buying a fiddle, and taking violin lessonsnature of fame and glory.with Hautboy. The Fiddler, probably written dur-ing the summer of 1853 and submitted to HARPER SNEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE not long after, was notpublished until September 1854, when it appeared Far Off-Shore (1888)anonymously in the magazine.Poem in JOHN MARR.In this spare, eight-line poem,CHARACTERSMelville conjures up the image of a deserted raft,Hautboy Hautboy is the title character in thisover which sea birds hover, crying   Crew, theshort story, a cheerful man of about 40 who appears,crew?  As in  THE ÆOLIAN HARP, here Melville sas his name suggests, to be an overgrown boy.As itvision of the sea includes a kind of ghost ship.turns out,  Hautboy is not his given name, butinstead one he adopted when he turned his backon a celebrated career as a violin prodigy.He thenhappily began to earn his living as a violin teacher. Fiddler, The (1854)In the story, he is compared with the English childShort story.With the critical and popular failure actor Master Betty (William Henry West Betty),of PIERRE in 1852, Melville found himself unable a child actor who retired at 33 after making a for-to find a publisher for his next proposed long work.tune.Melville may have based Hautboy on MasterIn order to continue making a living as a writer Joseph Burke, an English violin prodigy who finallyfor himself and his family, he began writing short settled in ALBANY, NEW YORK, where as a childfiction for magazines.His first three efforts, prob- Melville may have heard him play.ably written in the summer of 1853, were  TheFiddler,  The Happy Failure, and  Cock-A- Helmstone Helmstone, a poet, is the narrator ofDoodle-Do! The first two are moralizing sketches the story [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]