- description
- # JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS
## Overview
"JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS" is a chapter from the poetry collection "[John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H)". It was extracted from the file "[john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4)" and is part of the larger "[Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW)" collection. The chapter contains the poem of the same title, which spans lines 138 to 210 of the source text.
## Context
This chapter is situated within the context of Herman Melville's collected works, specifically his poetry. The preceding chapter is "[INTRODUCTORY NOTE](arke:01KG8AJF3ZGVZMFV7R9VQ5S1Y5)", which provides editorial commentary on Melville's verse, and it is followed by the chapter "[BRIDEGROOM DICK](arke:01KG8AJF3ZZ701ZA41H31WZBPD)". The poem itself reflects on the author's past associations with sailors, merchants, whalers, and naval men, evoking a sense of camaraderie and shared experience across different maritime professions.
## Contents
The text of the chapter is the poem "JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS." The poem is a reflective piece where the speaker addresses former shipmates, recalling their shared past at sea. It touches upon themes of memory, the passage of time, and the enduring bonds of fellowship among sailors. The speaker contemplates the fates of these individuals, from those who continue their voyages to those who have been lost to the sea or ashore. The poem uses vivid imagery of maritime life, including "tattooings, ear-rings, love-locks curled," and references various types of sailors and their pursuits, such as "merchant-sailors," "huntsman-whalers," and "man-of-war’s men."
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:06.332Z
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- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS
- end_line
- 210
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- 2026-01-30T20:47:32.309Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 138
- text
- JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS
Since as in night’s deck-watch ye show,
Why, lads, so silent here to me,
Your watchmate of times long ago?
Once, for all the darkling sea,
You your voices raised how clearly,
Striking in when tempest sung;
Hoisting up the storm-sail cheerly,
_Life is storm—let storm!_ you rung.
Taking things as fated merely,
Childlike though the world ye spanned;
Nor holding unto life too dearly,
Ye who held your lives in hand—
Skimmers, who on oceans four
Petrels were, and larks ashore.
O, not from memory lightly flung,
Forgot, like strains no more availing,
The heart to music haughtier strung;
Nay, frequent near me, never staleing,
Whose good feeling kept ye young.
Like tides that enter creek or stream,
Ye come, ye visit me, or seem
Swimming out from seas of faces,
Alien myriads memory traces,
To enfold me in a dream!
I yearn as ye. But rafts that strain,
Parted, shall they lock again?
Twined we were, entwined, then riven,
Ever to new embracements driven,
Shifting gulf-weed of the main!
And how if one here shift no more,
Lodged by the flinging surge ashore?
Nor less, as now, in eve’s decline,
Your shadowy fellowship is mine.
Ye float around me, form and feature:—
Tattooings, ear-rings, love-locks curled;
Barbarians of man’s simpler nature,
Unworldly servers of the world.
Yea, present all, and dear to me,
Though shades, or scouring China’s sea.
Whither, whither, merchant-sailors,
Whitherward now in roaring gales?
Competing still, ye huntsman-whalers,
In leviathan’s wake what boat prevails?
And man-of-war’s men, whereaway?
If now no dinned drum beat to quarters
On the wilds of midnight waters—
Foemen looming through the spray;
Do yet your gangway lanterns, streaming,
Vainly strive to pierce below,
When, tilted from the slant plank gleaming,
A brother you see to darkness go?
But, gunmates lashed in shotted canvas,
If where long watch-below ye keep,
Never the shrill _“All hands up hammocks!”_
Breaks the spell that charms your sleep,
And summoning trumps might vainly call,
And booming guns implore—
A beat, a heart-beat musters all,
One heart-beat at heart-core.
It musters. But to clasp, retain;
To see you at the halyards main—
To hear your chorus once again!
- title
- JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS