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Three American Poets
A unique collection of poems from three writers living under the shadow of the Civil War
Three great American poets, all of whom preferred the solitary life, and yet each responded, in very different ways, to the greatest social event of their times: the challenge of living in a country recovering from civil war. The selection from Melville aims to show the range of his shorter verse, from the public poet intensely concerned with the Civil War and its meaning for humanity, to the private poet, as he withdrew from the eyes of the world. Robinson's quintessential and much anthologised famous poems can be read set alongside the less widely-read pieces also included here. Tuckerman is a neglected poet, whose poems reflect his friendship with Tennyson and his grief for the loss of his wife."
Three great American poets, all of whom preferred the solitary life, and yet each responded, in very different ways, to the greatest social event of their times: the challenge of living in a country recovering from civil war. The selection from Melville aims to show the range of his shorter verse, from the public poet intensely concerned with the Civil War and its meaning for humanity, to the private poet, as he withdrew from the eyes of the world. Robinson's quintessential and much anthologised famous poems can be read set alongside the less widely-read pieces also included here. Tuckerman is a neglected poet, whose poems reflect his friendship with Tennyson and his grief for the loss of his wife."
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 25, 2003
18 people want to read
About the author
Herman Melville
2,460 books4,574 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 9, 2008
If you’re toting up American poets of the 19th century, Dickinson gets one finger, Whitman another, but who’s on third? A friend recently told me the smart money’s on Tuckerman (Tuckerman?), and the only Tuckerman I could find is in this volume, wedged between the wet log of a poet that’s Melville—lots of smoke and dramatic crackle, little flame—and E.A.R., who got too much laurel in his own life to really deserve space here. (There’s also small connection with Melville and Tuckerman, born two years apart and both similarly neglected.)
Tuckerman was the laureate of autumnal gloom, with winter’s blast just around the corner. He came to his melancholy honestly, losing an infant daughter, then his beloved wife in childbirth, after which Tuckerman withdrew to Greenfield, MA and let the Civil War and pretty much everything else roll past him. His poems are dense, knotty verbal contrivances that are a world away from the populist bounce of so many of his contemporaries; the subject matter’s death-drenched and wrenching while staying this side of Goth. Penguin stuck out its neck on this one and I’m glad. On to Clarel …
Tuckerman was the laureate of autumnal gloom, with winter’s blast just around the corner. He came to his melancholy honestly, losing an infant daughter, then his beloved wife in childbirth, after which Tuckerman withdrew to Greenfield, MA and let the Civil War and pretty much everything else roll past him. His poems are dense, knotty verbal contrivances that are a world away from the populist bounce of so many of his contemporaries; the subject matter’s death-drenched and wrenching while staying this side of Goth. Penguin stuck out its neck on this one and I’m glad. On to Clarel …
Displaying 1 of 1 review