Melville’s verse printed for the most part privately in small editions
from middle life onward after his great prose work had been written,
taken as a whole, is of an amateurish and uneven quality. In it,
however, that loveable freshness of personality, which his
philosophical dejection never quenched, is everywhere in evidence. It
is clear that he did not set himself to master the poet’s art, yet
through the mask of conventional verse which often falls into doggerel,
the voice of a true poet is heard. In selecting the pieces for this
volume I have put in the vigorous sea verses of _John Marr_ in their
entirety and added those others from his _Battle Pieces_, _Timoleon,_
etc., that best indicate the quality of their author’s personality. The
prose supplement to battle pieces has been included because it does so
much to explain the feeling of his war verse and further because it is
such a remarkably wise and clear commentary upon those confused and
troublous days of post-war reconstruction. H. C.