History & Politics
“The Coming Storm”
From Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War
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.
Codex Note
A Picture by S.R. Gifford, and owned by E.B. Included in the N.A. Exhibition, April, 1865.
Cite this poem
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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