- description
- # HERBA SANTA
## Overview
"Herba Santa" is a chapter within the poetry collection *John Marr and Other Poems*. It is a poem that explores themes of peace, solace, and the calming influence of nature, specifically referencing the herb "Herba Santa" (also known as Holy Herb or Yerba Santa).
## Context
This chapter is part of *John Marr and Other Poems*, a collection of poems by Herman Melville. The collection was extracted from the file `john_marr_and_other_poems.txt` and is contained within the larger archive "Melville Complete Works". The chapter immediately preceding it is "THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES," and the chapter following it is "THE APPARITION."
## Contents
The poem "Herba Santa" is divided into six sections. It uses the imagery of the Herba Santa plant to symbolize a natural balm that can bring peace and reconciliation, even in the face of conflict and division. The poem contrasts the artificiality of human-made peace treaties with the genuine solace offered by nature. It suggests that this herb has a calming effect on the nerves and can soothe troubled minds, promoting fellowship and contentment. The final section evokes a sense of tranquil contemplation, with the speaker inhaling Herba Santa through a pipe of peace.
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:10.898Z
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- description_title
- HERBA SANTA
- end_line
- 1943
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- 2026-01-30T20:47:32.310Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1841
- text
- After long wars when comes release
Not olive wands proclaiming peace
Can import dearer share
Than stems of Herba Santa hazed
In autumn’s Indian air.
Of moods they breathe that care disarm,
They pledge us lenitive and calm.
II
Shall code or creed a lure afford
To win all selves to Love’s accord?
When Love ordained a supper divine
For the wide world of man,
What bickerings o’er his gracious wine!
Then strange new feuds began.
Effectual more in lowlier way,
Pacific Herb, thy sensuous plea
The bristling clans of Adam sway
At least to fellowship in thee!
Before thine altar tribal flags are furled,
Fain wouldst thou make one hearthstone of the world.
III
To scythe, to sceptre, pen and hod—
Yea, sodden laborers dumb;
To brains overplied, to feet that plod,
In solace of the _Truce of God_
The Calumet has come!
IV
Ah for the world ere Raleigh’s find
Never that knew this suasive balm
That helps when Gilead’s fails to heal,
Helps by an interserted charm.
Insinuous thou that through the nerve
Windest the soul, and so canst win
Some from repinings, some from sin,
The Church’s aim thou dost subserve.
The ruffled fag fordone with care
And brooding, God would ease this pain:
Him soothest thou and smoothest down
Till some content return again.
Even ruffians feel thy influence breed
Saint Martin’s summer in the mind,
They feel this last evangel plead,
As did the first, apart from creed,
Be peaceful, man—be kind!
V
Rejected once on higher plain,
O Love supreme, to come again
Can this be thine?
Again to come, and win us too
In likeness of a weed
That as a god didst vainly woo,
As man more vainly bleed?
VI
Forbear, my soul! and in thine Eastern chamber
Rehearse the dream that brings the long release:
Through jasmine sweet and talismanic amber
Inhaling Herba Santa in the passive Pipe of Peace.
OFF CAPE COLONNA
Aloof they crown the foreland lone,
From aloft they loftier rise—
Fair columns, in the aureole rolled
From sunned Greek seas and skies.
They wax, sublimed to fancy’s view,
A god-like group against the blue.
Over much like gods! Serene they saw
The wolf-waves board the deck,
And headlong hull of Falconer,
And many a deadlier wreck.
- title
- HERBA SANTA