English poem
Canto 24 ("Over the river…)
"Over the river
In gloaming, ah, still do ye plain? Dovc dove in the mangroves, How dear is thy pain!
"Sorrow—but fondled; Reproaches that never upbraid Spite the passion, the yearning Of love unrepaid.
"Teach me, oh! teach me Thy cadence, that Inez may thrill
With the bliss of the sadness, And love have his will!"
Through twilight of mild evening pale, As now returning slow they farc In dubious keeping with the dale And legends, floating came that air From one invisible in shade, Singing and lightly sauntering on Toward the cloisters. Pause they made; But he a lateral way had won: Viewless he passed, as might a wave Rippling, which doth a frigate lave At anchor in the midnight road.
Clarel a fleeting thought bestowed: Unkenned! to thee what thoughts belong— Announced by such a tropic song.
More by Herman Melville
- Canto 23 ('Tis travel teaches much that's strange…)
- Canto 23 (Next day the wanderer drawing near…)
- Canto 23 (On the third morn, a misty…)
- Canto 23 (There as they wend, Derwent his…)
- Canto 24 (And do the clear sands pure…)
- Canto 24 (But Clarel, bides he still by…)
- Canto 24 (In the south wall, where low…)
- Canto 25 ("Ah Rome, your tie! may child…)