Fruit of Travel Long Ago
Details
A few months before his death in 1891, Melville privately published a 25-print run of poetry, titled Timoleon. The penultimate section, "Fruit of Travel Long Ago," consists of 18 poems inspired by his Grand Tour through Italy, Greece, and Egypt (presented in reverse chronological order from which he visited them). As the poems reach successively backwards through memory, they criss-cross time and space, reflecting on history, culture, and the meaning of art.
Significantly, Timoleon is dedicated "to my countryman, Elihu Vedder." Vedder, like Melville, was born in New York City. In 1857 (coincident with Melville's Grand Tour), he travelled to Italy to complete his training as a painter, where he was deeply influenced by the Macchiaioli: a movement of artist-revolutionaries who not only rebelled against Italy's established (foreign-dominated) political regime, but also against its academic (foreign-dominated) artistic conventions. Vedder returned to New York City to begin his artistic career, but by 1866 he resettled permanently in Rome.
Melville admired Vedder's paintings for decades, but the two--described as "kindred spirits" by Charles C. Eldredge--apparently never met. Seeing Melville's dedication, Vedder wrote his gratitude that "my art has gained me so many friends--even if unknown to me," but (like kindred spirits Clarel and Celio) the estrangement was unreconciled: Melville died before receiving the letter.
Whereas Timoleon's travel is "long ago" (and "far away"), its dedication defiantly declares the intimacy of a shared home near-at-heart. This, perhaps more than the poetry itself, is an Ishmael-wanderer's hoped-for "fruit." But the sense of repose anticipated in the collection's finale is held in suspense, for "Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more? .... the secret of our paternity lies in [the] grave, and we must there to learn it." (Moby-Dick, 114)
For this meetup, we will read the last half of Melville's Timoleon: "Fruit of Travel Long Ago" and "L'Envoi."
Note: This meetup will be recorded for private use.
Timoleon:
- Google books (p. 277-295)
Supplemental:
- Come Sail Away song by Styx
This meetup is part of the series The Risorgimento.