Melville's Milton A Transcription of Melville's Marginalia in His Copy of The Poetical Works of John Milton

“Horned Perplexities”: Melville's “Donelson” and Media Environments

“…For example, on the relation of the telegraph to the poetry of Emily Dickinson, see McCormack and Quinn. On the relation of literature to the telegraph, electricity, and information systems, see Gilmore, Halliday, Menke, and Stubbs. For analysis of the telegraph in Melville's Clarel , see Zlatic, “The Wired World of Clarel .”…”

“…Given the allusion in this passage to Milton's Comus , perhaps this use of “perplexities” was inspired by Milton's portrayal in Samson Agonistes of doubters of God's justice: “Till by their own perplexities involv’d / They ravel more, still less resolv’d, / But never find self‐satisfying solution” (304‐6). Melville's annotation to this passage was, “Noble rhetoric but vile reasoning.” See Grey and Robillard 184.…”

Clarel and the American Centennial

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Suffices that to me strength is my bane, And proves the source of all my miseries; So many, and so huge, that each apart Would ask a life to wail. (Grey and Robillard 183)

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