I have chosen a bed by the marigold
And supplied me a silver spade.
And there are, too, incidental legends and saints’ tales:
Those legends which, be it confessed
Did nearer bring to them the sky—
Did nearer woo it in their hope
Of all that seers and saints avow—
Than Galileo’s telescope
Can bid it unto prosing science now.
Clarel is by all odds the most important record we have of what was the temper of Melville’s deeper thoughts during his long metaphysical period. Typical quotations have already been made.