{"id":"01KG8AJF44PT8VDSP1GYRD0TV5","cid":"bafkreigjbf2pgtv2itw7ey34medck7o2byzgsqcwoa2xkow6oulaux6pba","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# THE AEOLIAN HARP\n## Overview - What this is (type, form, dates, scope)\n\"THE AEOLIAN HARP\" is a chapter within the poetry collection [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H). Extracted from the file [john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4), this chapter was processed by the structure-extraction-lambda on January 30, 2026. The text spans lines 1101 to 1164 of the source file. It is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection.\n\n## Context - Background and provenance from related entities\nThis chapter is part of a larger collection of poems. The source file, \"john_marr_and_other_poems.txt,\" was extracted and structured as part of the \"Melville Complete Works\" collection. The chapter is preceded by \"THE HAGLETS\" ([arke:01KG8AJF445GKV07TRD6PPVM7Q]) and followed by \"TO THE MASTER OF THE _METEOR_\" ([arke:01KG8AJF457A4NY7XEW30EX20M]).\n\n## Contents - What it contains, key subjects and details\nThe poem \"THE AEOLIAN HARP\" describes the imagery of an Aeolian harp, a dismasted wreck, and the sailors lost at sea. The poem uses the harp as a metaphor for the sounds of the sea and the voices of the lost. The poem evokes themes of loss, the power of the sea, and the mysteries of the deep.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:08.945Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"THE AEOLIAN HARP","end_line":1164,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:32.309Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"THE AEOLIAN HARP","source_file":"01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4","start_line":1101,"text":"THE AEOLIAN HARP\r\n\r\n\r\n_At The Surf Inn_\r\n\r\n\r\nList the harp in window wailing\r\n    Stirred by fitful gales from sea:\r\nShrieking up in mad crescendo—\r\n    Dying down in plaintive key!\r\n\r\nListen: less a strain ideal\r\nThan Ariel’s rendering of the Real.\r\n    What that Real is, let hint\r\n    A picture stamped in memory’s mint.\r\n\r\nBraced well up, with beams aslant,\r\nBetwixt the continents sails the _Phocion,_\r\nFor Baltimore bound from Alicant.\r\nBlue breezy skies white fleeces fleck\r\nOver the chill blue white-capped ocean:\r\nFrom yard-arm comes—“Wreck ho, a wreck!”\r\n\r\nDismasted and adrift,\r\nLongtime a thing forsaken;\r\nOverwashed by every wave\r\nLike the slumbering kraken;\r\nHeedless if the billow roar,\r\nOblivious of the lull,\r\nLeagues and leagues from shoal or shore,\r\nIt swims—a levelled hull:\r\nBulwarks gone—a shaven wreck,\r\nNameless and a grass-green deck.\r\nA lumberman: perchance, in hold\r\nProstrate pines with hemlocks rolled.\r\n\r\nIt has drifted, waterlogged,\r\nTill by trailing weeds beclogged:\r\n    Drifted, drifted, day by day,\r\n    Pilotless on pathless way.\r\nIt has drifted till each plank\r\nIs oozy as the oyster-bank:\r\n    Drifted, drifted, night by night,\r\n    Craft that never shows a light;\r\nNor ever, to prevent worse knell,\r\nTolls in fog the warning bell.\r\n\r\nFrom collision never shrinking,\r\nDrive what may through darksome smother;\r\nSaturate, but never sinking,\r\nFatal only to the _other!_\r\n    Deadlier than the sunken reef\r\nSince still the snare it shifteth,\r\n    Torpid in dumb ambuscade\r\nWaylayingly it drifteth.\r\n\r\nO, the sailors—O, the sails!\r\nO, the lost crews never heard of!\r\nWell the harp of Ariel wails\r\nThought that tongue can tell no word of!\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"THE AEOLIAN HARP"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H","peer_type":"poetry_collection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJF445GKV07TRD6PPVM7Q","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJF457A4NY7XEW30EX20M","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:32.484Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.140Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}