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Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land

Herman Melville,

Hershel Parker (Editor)

Harrison Hayford (Editor)

G. Thomas Tanselle (Editor)

Alma MacDougall Reising (Editor)

3.56 · Rating details · 59 ratings · 9 reviews

Melville’s long poem Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876) was the last full-length book he published. Until the mid-twentieth century even the most partisan of Melville’s advocates hesitated to endure a four-part poem of 150 cantos and almost 18,000 lines about a naive American named Clarel, on pilgrimage through the Palestinian ruins with a provocative ...more

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Paperback, 499 pages

Published August 20th 2008 by Northwestern University Press (first published 1876)

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Jul 14, 2019 robin friedman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Reading Clarel For Melville's Bicentennial

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Melville's birth (August 1, 1819), I decided to read his books that I hadn't read before. I read his novel "Pierre or the Ambiguities" and then turned to the long narrative poem that Melville published in 1876 with financial assistance from a generous relative, "Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land". I was moved to read "Clarel" when I learned that the Library of America will be publishing the poem, Reading Clarel For Melville's Bicentennial

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Melville's birth (August 1, 1819), I decided to read his books that I hadn't read before. I read his novel "Pierre or the Ambiguities" and then turned to the long narrative poem that Melville published in 1876 with financial assistance from a generous relative, "Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land". I was moved to read "Clarel" when I learned that the Library of America will be publishing the poem, together with Melville's other poetry, in a volume to be released this August. I didn't want to wait for the LOA volume. Many years ago, I purchased "Clarel" from a used book store in this 1960 volume edited by the American literary and historical scholar, Walter Bezanson (1912 -- 2011). Despite good intentions, the book had long gathered dust on my shelf. It came recommended to me as a way to approach the difficulties of Melville's poem, and I was glad to have the book to hand and to turn to at last.

Bezanson's book is invaluable to approach a poem which is daunting on every level. It begins with a lengthy introduction which summarizes Melville's career and the writing of "Clarel". Bezanson offers background on the poem, its reception, and its difficult language, and its meter. He offers a summary of the action of the poem in each of its four long parts together with discussions of the setting and of the many complex characters. I read the Introduction before turning to "Clarel" and consulted it frequently during my reading. Following the text of the poem, this edition includes a maps of the Palestine of Melville's day and of the route followed by the pilgrims in the poem.A lengthy additional section discusses the characters in the poem and the roles each plays. Then, Bezanson offers lengthy explanatory notes which discuss many of the difficult references and passages in the poem. These materials helped me immeasurably in my journey with Clarel.

Clarel had its origins in a journey Melville took to the Holy Land in 1856 -- 1857, At this time, his career as a novelist had failed (with the exception of "Billy Budd" published after his death). Melville secured a tedious day job working at the customs house in New York City and worked on his poem at night. It is easy to understand the chagrin Melville's wife and family felt at his devoting his time to this markedly difficult and never-to-be-popular poem. The poem failed upon publication and failed for many years thereafter even with the strong revival of interest in Melville in the 1920s. With its length and difficulty, the poem remains little read but has gathered attention from Melville's admirers and will undoubtedly receive some additional attention through the LOA volume.

Melville used his journey to Palestine, the journal he kept of his trip, and his extensive reading as the basis for "Clarel". The title character is a young American student of theology who comes to Palestine and search of faith and also, as it develops, of love. In the course of his stay, Clarel meets many other pilgrims. The two primary characters are Rolfe, who seems to be modeled on Melville himself and Vine, who is usually taken for Melville's friend Hawthorne. Other characters represent a variety of theological, philosophical, and political positions, from deeply believing Christians to scientific materialists heavily influenced by Darwin.

The book is in four large parts each of which is subdivided into many cantos. The first part describes Clarel's stay in Jerusalem where he sees many of the historic sites of the city, engages in discussions, and ultimately falls in love with a young American Jewish woman, Ruth. When Ruth's father dies, Clarel sets out on a pilgrimage which lasts ten days but seems longer. The second part of the book describes the long exacting journey through Palestine through the desert and to the Dead Sea. The third part describes a three day stay at a Greek monastery, Mar Saba. In the fourth part, the pilgrims return to Bethlehem, and Clarel ultimately travels to Jerusalem where he learns Ruth has died. There is a short concluding Epilogue.

The book is full of the desolation and ruin of Palestine in the mid 19th Century. Readers may find this history set out more clearly in other books, but Melville captures a strong sense of place and history. There are moments of action in the book as Melville describes the journey of his pilgrims. But most of the book is inward and most of it focuses on extensive theological, philosophical, and political discussions among the major protagonists and several minor characters. Broadly the discussions center upon the existence of God, the necessity or its lack of religious faith to provide meaning to life, the relationship between faith and science, and finding a form of religion in a world in which traditional creeds seem to have lost their vitality and meaning. The book shows how the characters interact and their varied impact on each other and on the young Clarel.

The poem is made difficult by its sheer length, by its awkward meter, archaic language, and subject matter. The book is full of allusions to the Bible, the classics, to sites in Palestine, to literature, and to political events in Melville's day. These considerations and others make for a slow, difficult book which understandably was judged a failure when it appeared. In its tone of earnestness and moral seriousness, "Clarel" has much in common with Victorian and romantic literature.

On working through "Clarel" I found it mixed with many effective passages, both in poetry and content as well as much that is tedious. The poetical meter is handled more effectively than I had anticipated, on the whole, and monotony is relieved on several occasions through songs and variations in meter and tempo. The poem describes in terms I can understand the religious quest and the various options Melville saw in the religious search. The material is difficult and presented in different guises and forms again and again in the poem. It is still a moving picture of religious search. Is is so often the case with religious search, Clarel's religious journey for faith is intertwined with questions and doubts about his sexuality and sexual responses.

The poem suggest a profound skepticism in understanding the mystery of life and religion while suggesting the necessity of engaging with these questions in one's life.

"Clarel" is not a work to recommend to the casual reader. Still, the work was important to Melville and will help the reader with a passion for this author. The poem is valuable for itself in showing a depth of engagement with questions of religion, secularism and faith. I was glad to have made the effort to struggle with "Clarel". It is a precious gift to have this work available in the LOA as an example of the depth and difficulty of American literature and of the American experience.

Robin Friedman ...more

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Nov 04, 2010 Elizabeth rated it really liked it

An epic poem of ideas. So hard to follow that you do really feel like you're going on a difficult journey, like the characters. But as you keep going the ideas get more and more interesting, the people get more and more engaging, and you want to see more and more of the little wonderful and terrible moments that happen along the way.

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Feb 11, 2018 Illiterate rated it really liked it

Bleak poetry and thought. The heart longs for faith the head rejects. The search for faith leads to loss of joy on earth.

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Nov 12, 2008 Nathan Eilers rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Melville scholars ONLY!

Oh, Melville, this is quite an arduous poem you've written here. Sure, there are excellent passages about faith, doubt, and the problem of evil, but the poesy isn't much (sometimes it's outright bad) and the story doesn't exist. Basically, Melville invents a bunch of characters who embody different ideas and has them talk to each other. A lot.

Don't read this unless you're a Melville scholar.

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Feb 11, 2018 Ben rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Europe was in a decade dim:
Upon the future's trembling rim
The comet hovered. His a league
Of frank debate and close intrigue:
Plot, proselyte, appeal, denounce--
Conspirator, pamphleteer, at once,
And prophet. Wear and tear and jar
He met with coffee and cigar:
These kept awake the man and mood
And dream. That uncreated Good
He sought, whose absence is the cause
Of creeds and Atheists, mobs and laws.
Precocities of heart outran
The immaturities of brain.

Along with each superior mind
The vain, foolhard, ...more

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May 22, 2017 Eric Marcy rated it it was amazing

Some books are absolute beasts to get through, but incredibly worth it once the journey is over. Clarel is wonderful because the intense spiritual wrestling it prompts continues long after the powerful final lines echo away.

Clarel is a painfully unwieldy long-form epic poem, the longest ever written by an American, if I'm not mistaken (18,000 lines!) and as its motley cast of characters wander over and across the holy land, and the conflicts between religion(s) and science at the passing of the ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Andrew rated it did not like it

After three years of intermittent reading, I've finally finished the complete* poetry and prose of Mr. Herman Melville. Forget anything you've heard about Mardi, Moby-Dick, Pierre, or Confidence-Man being impenetrable and unreadable. The only truly unreadable one is this grotesque, never-ending bog of misery. Even the two 5 star reviews currently on this page concede that Clarel is "tedious" and "painfully unwieldy."

Out of almost 500 pages, there are about 10 pages worth of actual brilliancy. By ...more

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Feb 23, 2012 Paola added it · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

INDICE
Prefazione
CLAREL

I. JERUSALEM/GERUSALEMME

I. The Hostel
I. L’0stello
II. Abdon
II. Abdon
XXV. Huts
XXV. Tuguri
XXXII. Of Rama
XXXII. Rama
XXXIV. They Tarry
XXXIV. Indugiano
XXXv11. A Sketch
XXXVII. Bozzetto

II. THE WILDERNESS/LA DESOLAZIONE

XVI. Night in Jericho
XVI. Notte a Gerico
XVIII. The Syrian Monk
XVIII. Il monaco siriano
XXXV. Prelusive
XXXV. Preludendo
XXXVI. Sodom
XXXVI. Sodoma
XXXVIII. The Fog
XXXVIII. La nebbia

IV. BETHLEHEM/BETLEMME
X. A Monument
X. Un monumento
XX. Derwent and ...more

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Feb 06, 2008 Adam Gardner rated it liked it · review of another edition

Probably not worth the 500 plus pages of tetrameter but bold and intellectually severe at times.

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About Herman Melville

Herman Melville

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Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His first two books gained much attention, though they were not bestsellers, and his popularity declined precipitously only a few years later. By the time of his death he had been almost completely forgotten, but his longest novel, Moby-Dick — largely considered a failure ...more

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