Tag Archives: Herman Melville

Abraham Lincoln as the Catskill Eagle

“Embedded in the narrative of Moby-Dick is a metaphysical blueprint of the United States. Melville fills the book with telling similes and metaphors that allow a story set almost entirely at sea to evoke the look and feel of America … Continue reading

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Herman Melville & Hart Crane

Nathaniel Philbrick has written a marvelous book, Why Read Moby-Dick? Let me quote: “Moby-Dick is a novel, but it is also a book of poetry. The beauty of Melville’s sentences is such that it sometimes takes me five minutes or … Continue reading

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The Slabsides Poets

I’ve visited Arrowhead in the Berkshires, the yellow house where young Herman Melville set himself up as a country squire to finish Moby Dick, perhaps inspired by the whale-humped profile of Mt. Graylock outside his window. I’ve also been to … Continue reading

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