Poem by Herman Melville

Art

IN placid hours well-pleased we dream
Of many a brave unbodied scheme.
But form to lend, pulsed life create,
What unlike things must meet and mate:
A flame to melt--a wind to freeze;
Sad patience--joyous energies;
Humility--yet pride and scorn;
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity--reverence. These must mate,
And fuse with Jacob's mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel--Art.

1. The Enviable Isles
2. The Night March
3. To Ned
4. Lines Traced under an Image of Amor Threatening
5. Old Counsel

Alfred Noyes Art ("Yes! Beauty still rebels!")

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