History & Politics

“The Coming Storm”

by Herman Melville 1819–1891

From Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War

History & Politics

All feeling hearts must feel for him
Who felt this picture. Presage dim--
Dim inklings from the shadowy sphere
Fixed him and fascinated here.

A demon-cloud like the mountain one
Burst on a spirit as mild
As this urned lake, the home of shades.
But Shakspeare’s pensive child

Never the lines had lightly scanned,
Steeped in fable, steeped in fate;
The Hamlet in his heart was ’ware,
Such hearts can antedate.

No utter surprise can come to him
Who reaches Shakspeare’s core;
That which we seek and shun is there--
Man’s final lore.

✦ ✦ ✦

A Picture by S.R. Gifford, and owned by E.B. Included in the N.A. Exhibition, April, 1865.

MLA

Melville, Herman. ““The Coming Storm”.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/melville/42/.

Chicago

Melville, Herman. ““The Coming Storm”.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/melville/42/.

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