Other Poetry in relation to Melville’s
When reading Melville’s poetry at first I was reminded of the types of poetry that we are reading in my class on the Romantics. But I then figured I was only seeing similarities because both were poetry. But in class professor Phillips mentioned John Keats’s poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” in comparison to Melville’s work. Looking back on other Keats poems that we read in the Romantics, for example, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” I did find some similarities. Keats’s poem includes references to things and words that are very antiquated just like that of Melville’s work. The imagery both in Melville’s poetry and in Keats’s works are especially strong. In order to really see the poem, professor Byrd had my Romantics class do a poetry comic: drawing out the imagery in each line. While I didn’t make a poetry comic for Melville’s work I made sure to slow myself down enough to be able to picture the imagery, despite its flowing fast pace.
I also took professor Byrd’s Romantics course last year and Keats’ imagery and use of historical references is very similar to Melville’s. I felt that the overall feeling Melville was trying to portray through his Civil War poems definitely helped me gain a better understanding of living through the War, and I agree that taking a step back and taking them in line by line also helped me process everything that is going on in his poems.