{"id":"01KG8AJF3W2RP6XRX7GKHJGS3S","cid":"bafkreidtn3jgs74t2ld62wzovapefbsxq55cyflbtzu735wjp57hkx4fx4","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS\n\n## Overview\n\"JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS\" is a chapter from the poetry collection \"[John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H)\". It was extracted from the file \"[john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4)\" and is part of the larger \"[Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW)\" collection. The chapter contains the poem of the same title, which spans lines 138 to 210 of the source text.\n\n## Context\nThis chapter is situated within the context of Herman Melville's collected works, specifically his poetry. The preceding chapter is \"[INTRODUCTORY NOTE](arke:01KG8AJF3ZGVZMFV7R9VQ5S1Y5)\", which provides editorial commentary on Melville's verse, and it is followed by the chapter \"[BRIDEGROOM DICK](arke:01KG8AJF3ZZ701ZA41H31WZBPD)\". The poem itself reflects on the author's past associations with sailors, merchants, whalers, and naval men, evoking a sense of camaraderie and shared experience across different maritime professions.\n\n## Contents\nThe text of the chapter is the poem \"JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS.\" The poem is a reflective piece where the speaker addresses former shipmates, recalling their shared past at sea. It touches upon themes of memory, the passage of time, and the enduring bonds of fellowship among sailors. The speaker contemplates the fates of these individuals, from those who continue their voyages to those who have been lost to the sea or ashore. The poem uses vivid imagery of maritime life, including \"tattooings, ear-rings, love-locks curled,\" and references various types of sailors and their pursuits, such as \"merchant-sailors,\" \"huntsman-whalers,\" and \"man-of-war’s men.\"","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.332Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS","end_line":210,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:32.309Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS","source_file":"01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4","start_line":138,"text":"JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS\r\n\r\n\r\nSince as in night’s deck-watch ye show,\r\nWhy, lads, so silent here to me,\r\nYour watchmate of times long ago?\r\nOnce, for all the darkling sea,\r\nYou your voices raised how clearly,\r\nStriking in when tempest sung;\r\nHoisting up the storm-sail cheerly,\r\n_Life is storm—let storm!_ you rung.\r\nTaking things as fated merely,\r\nChildlike though the world ye spanned;\r\nNor holding unto life too dearly,\r\nYe who held your lives in hand—\r\nSkimmers, who on oceans four\r\nPetrels were, and larks ashore.\r\n\r\nO, not from memory lightly flung,\r\nForgot, like strains no more availing,\r\nThe heart to music haughtier strung;\r\nNay, frequent near me, never staleing,\r\nWhose good feeling kept ye young.\r\nLike tides that enter creek or stream,\r\nYe come, ye visit me, or seem\r\nSwimming out from seas of faces,\r\nAlien myriads memory traces,\r\nTo enfold me in a dream!\r\n\r\nI yearn as ye. But rafts that strain,\r\nParted, shall they lock again?\r\nTwined we were, entwined, then riven,\r\nEver to new embracements driven,\r\nShifting gulf-weed of the main!\r\nAnd how if one here shift no more,\r\nLodged by the flinging surge ashore?\r\nNor less, as now, in eve’s decline,\r\nYour shadowy fellowship is mine.\r\nYe float around me, form and feature:—\r\nTattooings, ear-rings, love-locks curled;\r\nBarbarians of man’s simpler nature,\r\nUnworldly servers of the world.\r\nYea, present all, and dear to me,\r\nThough shades, or scouring China’s sea.\r\n\r\nWhither, whither, merchant-sailors,\r\nWhitherward now in roaring gales?\r\nCompeting still, ye huntsman-whalers,\r\nIn leviathan’s wake what boat prevails?\r\nAnd man-of-war’s men, whereaway?\r\nIf now no dinned drum beat to quarters\r\nOn the wilds of midnight waters—\r\nFoemen looming through the spray;\r\nDo yet your gangway lanterns, streaming,\r\nVainly strive to pierce below,\r\nWhen, tilted from the slant plank gleaming,\r\nA brother you see to darkness go?\r\n\r\nBut, gunmates lashed in shotted canvas,\r\nIf where long watch-below ye keep,\r\nNever the shrill _“All hands up hammocks!”_\r\nBreaks the spell that charms your sleep,\r\nAnd summoning trumps might vainly call,\r\nAnd booming guns implore—\r\nA beat, a heart-beat musters all,\r\nOne heart-beat at heart-core.\r\nIt musters. But to clasp, retain;\r\nTo see you at the halyards main—\r\nTo hear your chorus once again!\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H","peer_type":"poetry_collection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJF3ZGVZMFV7R9VQ5S1Y5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJF3ZZ701ZA41H31WZBPD","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:32.476Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.658Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}