Poem: “Tribes and Sects” by Herman Melville

Clarel

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American Literature – American Poetry – Herman Melville – Poems by Herman Melville – Clarel
< < < Canto 5: Clarel
Canto 7: Beyond the Walls > > >

JERUSALEM

Canto 6: Tribes and Sects

He turned to go; he turned, but stood:
In many notes of varying keys,
From shrines like coves in Jordan’s wood
Hark to the rival liturgies,
Which, rolling underneath the dome,
Resound about the patient Tomb
And penetrate the aisles. The rite
Of Georgian and Maronite, Armenian and fervid Greek,
The Latin organ, and wild clash
Of cymbals smitten cheek to cheek
Which the dark Abyssinian sways;
These like to tides together dash
And question of their purport raise.
   If little of the words he knew,
Might Clarel’s fancy forge a clue?
A malediction seemed each strain—
Himself the mark: O heart profane,
O pilgrim infidel, begone!
Nor here the sites of Faith pollute,
Thou who misgivest we enthrone
A God untrue, in myth absurd
As monstrous figments blabbed of Jove,
Or, worse, rank lies of Islam’s herd:
We know thee, thou there standing mute.
Out, out—begone! try Nature’s reign
Who deem’st the supernature vain:
To Lot’s Wave by black Kedron rove;
On, by Mount Seir, through Edom move;
There crouch thee with the jackall down—
Crave solace of the scorpion!
   ‘Twas fancy, troubled fancy weaved
Those imputations half believed.
The porch he neared; the chorus swelled;
He went forth like a thing expelled.
   Yet, going, he could but recall
The wrangles here which oft befall:
Contentions for each holy place,
And jealousies how far from grace:
O, bickering family bereft,
Was feud the heritage He left?

< < < Canto 5: Clarel
Canto 7: Beyond the Walls > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – Herman Melville – Poems by Herman Melville – Clarel

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Clarel

JERUSALEM

Canto 6: Tribes and Sects

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