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"A
Dead Whale or a Stove Boat" - A Look at Herman
Melville, The Poet by Neil K. MacMillan
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How do
we measure success? Is it fame? Or is it contentment or money?
If your definition is the latter, then we must rank Herman
Melville a failure.
Before
you pick up cudgels and join my tenth grade English Regents
teacher in the quest against such heresy, let me say that
I don’t view Melville as a failure.
Best
known for his whaling opus, “Moby Dick”, Melville
was also an accomplished poet. Indeed, after 1859, he strictly
wrote poetry. Although most of his poetry focuses on sailing
and the sea, he also wrote a chapbook of poetry dealing with
the Civil War. My favorite in that collection is titled “Shiloh:
A Requiem”.
His best
financial showing was with his first novel, “Typee”,
I will grant. I will also allow that he was able to continue
writing only due to the generosity of his well to do father
in law. But if this is our only measure of success then we
are, in my humble opinion, ill served.
There
is a power and majesty in Melville’s poetry that the
critics of his day failed to see and one that we in the twenty-first
century are not exposed to unless we dig on our own.
The power
of “Shiloh, A Requiem” lies in Melville’s ability
to convey the angst and desolation of America’s most
brutal war and one of that wars most horrific battles.
His ability
to realistically portray life at sea in both his novels and
his poetry still captures the imagination of countless readers
112 years after his death. That, friends, is the true meaning
of success.
We as
poets should metaphorically cry “A dead whale or a stove
boat!”. Only
by pouring that kind of soul and determination into our work
can we strive to be the kind of writer or poet that Melville
was.
Copyright
2003 by Neil K. MacMillan - Managing Editor
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