Poem: “Twilight” by Herman Melville

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American Literature – American Poetry – Herman Melville – Poems by Herman Melville – Clarel
< < < Canto 23: Derwent and Rolfe
Canto 25: The Invitation > > >

Bethlehem

Canto 24: Twilight

“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.

< < < Canto 23: Derwent and Rolfe
Canto 25: The Invitation > > >

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

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Clarel

Bethlehem

Canto 24: Twilight

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