- description
- # Yoomy Sings Some Odd Verses
## Overview
This section, titled "Yoomy Sings Some Odd Verses," is a segment of a larger work, extracted from the file `mardi_vol2.txt`. It is part of Chapter XXII of the work. The text details a conversation and a song performed by the character Yoomy.
## Context
This section is contained within [Chapter XXII. Yoomy Sings Some Odd Verses, And Babbalanja Quotes From The Old Authors Right And Left](arke:01KG8AJQSZDW1CKST31K7C1ZCK), which is part of the larger collection [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW). The text was extracted from the file `mardi_vol2.txt`. This section follows the [Introduction](arke:01KG8AKF7YMPMBPZDKHD96N50H) and precedes the section titled [Babbalanja Quotes From The Old Authors Right And Left](arke:01KG8AKF81PCYQ8DP64G7C3HR7).
## Contents
The text begins with Babbalanja asking Yoomy for a song about earthly felicity. Yoomy agrees to continue singing a song he was already composing. He then sings verses about a figure whose "dewy arms" offer shelter and who dives into the sea, bringing sunshine. The characters Mohi and Media question the identity of this figure, with Mohi asking "What mermaid is this?" and Media inquiring why no trace would be left behind. Yoomy's song continues with imagery of a foot that leaves no trace on the beach. The characters engage in a brief discussion about the nature of this figure and the flatness of her foot, with Braid-Beard humorously comparing it to a man with a made-up mind. Yoomy, lost in thought, does not reply to their comments.
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- Yoomy Sings Some Odd Verses
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:05.200Z
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- text
- Sailing from Padulla, after many pleasant things had been said
concerning the sights there beheld; Babbalanja thus addressed Yoomy—
“Warbler, the last song you sung was about moonlight, and paradise, and
fabulous pleasures evermore: now, have you any hymns about earthly
felicity?”
“If so, minstrel,” said Media, “jet it forth, my fountain, forthwith.”
“Just now, my lord,” replied Yoomy, “I was singing to myself, as I
often do, and by your leave, I will continue aloud.”
“Better begin at the beginning, I should think,” said the chronicler,
both hands to his chin, beginning at the top to new braid his beard.
“No: like the roots of your beard, old Mohi, all beginnings are stiff,”
cried Babbalanja. “We are lucky in living midway in eternity. So sing
away, Yoomy, where you left off,” and thus saying he unloosed his
girdle for the song, as Apicius would for a banquet.
“Shall I continue aloud, then, my lord?”
My lord nodded, and Yoomy sang:—
“Full round, full soft, her dewy arms,—
Sweet shelter from all Mardi’s harms!”
“Whose arms?” cried Mohi.
Sang Yoomy:—
Diving deep in the sea,
She takes sunshine along:
Down flames in the sea,
As of dolphins a throng.
“What mermaid is this?” cried Mohi.
Sang Yoomy:—
Her foot, a falling sound,
That all day long might bound.
Over the beach,
The soft sand beach,
And none would find
A trace behind.
“And why not?” demanded Media, “why could no trace be found?”
Said Braid-Beard, “Perhaps owing, my lord, to the flatness of the
mermaid’s foot. But no; that can not be; for mermaids are all vertebrae
below the waist.”
“Your fragment is pretty good, I dare say, Yoomy,” observed Media, “but
as Braid-Beard hints, rather flat.”
“Flat as the foot of a man with his mind made up,” cried Braid-Beard.
“Yoomy, did you sup on flounders last night?”
But Yoomy vouchsafed no reply, he was ten thousand leagues off in a
reverie: somewhere in the Hyades perhaps.
- title
- Yoomy Sings Some Odd Verses