{"id":"01KG8AJKEM1B9GENQ5GHACHPK1","cid":"bafkreif6q4mz4udexb4z3yng4ucwccabsz4af3gnxvukds3t3sebxa52qu","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# EPILOGUE\n\n## Overview\nThis entity is the \"EPILOGUE\" chapter, a poetic work extracted from the larger collection [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H). It spans lines 3967 to 4013 of its source text.\n\n## Context\nThe \"EPILOGUE\" is the final chapter in the collection [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H). It follows the chapter titled [DIRGE](arke:01KG8AJKEMP8M1ENR7TCAJ5P7G). The text was extracted from the digital file [john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4) and is part of the broader [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection.\n\n## Contents\nThe \"EPILOGUE\" is a reflective poem that contemplates themes of faith, despair, science, and the human condition. It opens with a couplet questioning the relationship between \"Luther's day\" and \"Darwin's year,\" suggesting a tension between religious belief and scientific advancement. The poem personifies Despair and Faith, depicting their interactions with an \"ancient Sphinx.\" It explores the ongoing \"running battle of the star and clod\" and the idea of human suffering and ultimate redemption, concluding with a message of enduring hope and the possibility of life triumphing over death.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.465Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"EPILOGUE","end_line":4013,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:32.310Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"EPILOGUE","source_file":"01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4","start_line":3967,"text":"EPILOGUE\r\n\r\n\r\n_If Luther’s day expand to Darwin’s year,_\r\n_Shall that exclude the hope—foreclose the fear?_\r\n\r\n\r\nUnmoved by all the claims our times avow,\r\nThe ancient Sphinx still keeps the porch of shade;\r\nAnd comes Despair, whom not her calm may cow,\r\nAnd coldly on that adamantine brow\r\nScrawls undeterred his bitter pasquinade.\r\nBut Faith (who from the scrawl indignant turns)\r\nWith blood warm oozing from her wounded trust,\r\nInscribes even on her shards of broken urns\r\nThe sign o’ the cross—_the spirit above the dust!_\r\n\r\n    Yea, ape and angel, strife and old debate—\r\nThe harps of heaven and dreary gongs of hell;\r\nScience the feud can only aggravate—\r\nNo umpire she betwixt the chimes and knell:\r\nThe running battle of the star and clod\r\nShall run forever—if there be no God.\r\n\r\n    Degrees we know, unknown in days before;\r\nThe light is greater, hence the shadow more;\r\nAnd tantalized and apprehensive Man\r\nAppealing—Wherefore ripen us to pain?\r\nSeems there the spokesman of dumb Nature’s train.\r\n\r\n    But through such strange illusions have they passed\r\nWho in life’s pilgrimage have baffled striven—\r\nEven death may prove unreal at the last,\r\nAnd stoics be astounded into heaven.\r\n\r\n    Then keep thy heart, though yet but ill-resigned—\r\nClarel, thy heart, the issues there but mind;\r\nThat like the crocus budding through the snow—\r\nThat like a swimmer rising from the deep—\r\nThat like a burning secret which doth go\r\nEven from the bosom that would hoard and keep;\r\nEmerge thou mayst from the last whelming sea,\r\nAnd prove that death but routs life into victory.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","title":"EPILOGUE"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H","peer_type":"poetry_collection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJKEMP8M1ENR7TCAJ5P7G","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KGJK9TN7R4Y3DKMS4P743GDC","predicate":"next"}],"ver":4,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:36.916Z","ts":"2026-02-03T20:32:42.554Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KDZS52M5F9XS0ZPZQQXGPC9A"}}