Also known as The Loneliest Readalong. Which, I want to say up front, is as it should be.
I’m coming right along in my read-through of all Melville’s work, and Moby-Dick made for a fun week of re-opening the project. So what better activity for a blog reader who loved that monster than to tackle a rather different Melvillean epic? Behold, the Unstructured Clarel Readalong.
A button!
Clarel, subtitled A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land, is an epic poem published in 1876. And when Melville does epic, he really does epic: according to Wikipedia, Clarel‘s nearly 18,000 lines make it the longest poem in American literature, longer than the Iliad, Aeneid, and Paradise Lost. Woohoo! Are you excited yet?
It's epic!
Readalongs often encourage de-humiliation, the reading of classics we’ve always wanted to get around to. Perhaps we’ve been intimidated, or maybe just lazy, but the group effort helps us get through Big, Important Books, like The Brothers Karamazov or Parade’s End.
The Unstructured Clarel Readalong will do no such thing. Has any earthly soul ever been humiliated by not having read Clarel? Be honest, how many of you had even heard of it, or knew anything more than its title?
The Holy Land!
Perhaps a taste of Clarel‘s contemporary reception will whet your appetite for the poem. Again from Wikipedia, we learn that “[t]he poem was barely noticed on its original publication,” and that
[t]he New York Times was the first to insist that “it should have been written in prose,” while the reviewer for the World complained that he had got “lost in the overwhelming tide of mediocrity.” The Independent called it a “vast work… destitute of interest or metrical skill,” and Lippincott’s Magazine claimed that there were “not six lines of genuine poetry in it.”
Are you excited yet?
Can it be all bad? I hope not! Hershel Parker’s foreword to the Northwestern-Newberry edition admits that “[m]iddle-aged or older American readers in 1876 would have felt more comfortable starting a long poem like Clarel than twenty-first-century Americans can feel,” but calls the poem “still the best-kept secret in American literature.” Now that’s enticing! He also cautions:
Realistically, twenty-first-century readers may need to remind themselves that self-reliance, the great American virtue, must be exercised if it is to be secured. Clarel gives you exercise.
And the Unstructured Clarel Readalong will give you exercise and good company (for just a touch of co-reliance)—Amateur Reader has already agreed to join in!
Based on my current progress, I should be posting on Clarel around the last week in August. Because of the length of the work, I thought a two-month period for posting would be nice and roomy, on the off chance anyone actually does want to exercise his or her self-reliance. N.b., this Unstructured Readalong should not be confused with the Non-Structured Reading Group made up of the lovely Frances, Sarah, Emily, Claire, Richard, and anyone else I may have missed.
I was wondering if your reading project would extend to this esoteric poem! More power to you. I fear I’m not quite Melville-phile enough (and too secular) to tackle this one yet, but I’ll be very curious what you & Amateur Reader end up writing on it!
I still have to read the Divine Comedy (I’m very late for Richard’s party), but like Emily, will be eagerly following your and AR’s progress. I admit not having heard of this title before but the subject matter is totally to my liking and am very, very interested, so I’ll probably read this after Dante.. thanks!
I hope you’ll both enjoy following along!
And claire, I unfortunately had to miss Richard’s party as well, but it has inspired me to attempt the Divine Comedy sometime soon. Soonish at least.
Great stuff. You guys are awesome. I was suggesting, last year at some point I think it was, that AR should dive into Clarel and report back. And now it’s happening! I would join you but there are all sorts of reasons why it won’t happen, starting with the general way in which I don’t do very well with poetry. But I’m excited, and I’ll get to the library and get a copy and take a look at it.
Good luck!
Thank you! I don’t do very well with poetry myself, but I have hopes.
I second Zhiv’s humble excuse…I like poetry, but I don’t do very well with it. But I am very excited to see what you two make of this epic undertaking.
What happened? Did you folks run out of steam? Do you need a tutor? The great Walter Bezanson died on 5 February 2011, but his introduction is in the Northwestern-Newberry CLAREL. My chapters in the second volume of the biography are very good to start with because they focus on just one character, Vine, who is based on Hawthorne, and lead you in very seductively until you are able to start the poem all over again and take in more of it as you go. I promise you, if you read carefully by the time you get into the fourth “book” you will get very anxious knowing it is going to end and you won’t get to listen to these great people talk any more.
Welcome, Professor Parker! We did not run out of steam; you can see a roundup of our posts here: http://www.bibliographing.com/2010/09/30/wrapping-up-the-unstructured-clarel-readalong
I hope you enjoy them and don’t find them too ridiculous.
I’m sad to say I have not yet read your biography, but it’s definitely on my list of things to do. As is a re-read of Clarel—someday at least. I hope you’ll look around and perhaps pass along some of your tutoring after the fact.
Prof. Parker – thanks for the sad news about Walter Bezanson. I read – I’m sure nicole would say the same thing – his long Clarel essay with attention, and with pleasure. That was a great piece of criticism.
Yes, I meant to mention that yesterday. It was unexpected and sad news. That was a wonderful essay.