EPTI've been very busy today, I slept enough to wake up for philosophy lecture, and after that my friend Arque and I tried to derive the product rule for calculus just for fun, but I didn't get to do it proper.
After lunch I had 3 hours to put together a shitty roughdraft into a good essay, I worked and I thought all hopes are lost.
However I managed, ran to class 10 minutes late trying to do some last minute desperate edit, I think it's been fair.
If you wish to see it here it is:
Yewen(Evan) Pu
19662986
Instructor Marrs
Rusting Armorial
“Glaring at Jones on the other side, wielding the blade of chilling light
Stood firmly with feet apart, one who is one with his art
A fast juggle of sword, a show of feat, Sheer mastery that brings defeat
Yet promptly with pistol, which Jones has drawn
Brought a quick end to this brawl”
- A quick impromptu poem for Indiana Jones’ gun vs. sword scene
I may be questioned for opening my essay with a somewhat out of place poem, however, as we shall see, the situation this poem describes is in parallel to Melville’s observation of romanticism in his time. The bullet, which cold lead essence contains no emotions or glory, put a quick end to the lofty swordsman, which leads us to wonder if the superfluous sword twirling is worth anything at all. The demise of USS Cumberland at the ram of CSS Virginia told a similar story: The Cumberland, a perfect embodiment of romantic ideals with long elegant hulls, tall casting masts, and suave, arching sails, was punctured a precise wound by the unimpressive CSS Virginia, which despite in its unimpressive small frames and a hue of sludge, had proven to be the more fatal weapon. Although the ship and the swordsman were both victims of the systematic metal machineries of modern times, they both possessed a distinct quality that their mechanical victors had none, the ideals of romanticism. It is not easy to say why, but it is certain that most of us have affinities with the ideals of romanticism: There is something marvelous about the swordsman’s sweeping robes and the majestic frames of old war ships: They both play no part in maiming the enemy, yet they both inexplicably draw us to them. Melville is drawn the same way toward romanticism, most pronounced in his poem “The Temeraire”, which expresses his love and longing for the romantic aspects of battle, and laments the inevitable death of such ideals due to the advents of industrialism.
Melville’s fondness for great warships drawn him naturally to compose a poem on the legendary Temeraire, who’s steadfast service in the English navy was unrivaled by her comrades. Of all his warship poems, the passages of “The Temeraire” describing the ship and the battle of Trafalgar are the most romantic ones. The Temeraire, an ideal warship, is “built of a thousand trees.”(59) One can thus infer the size of this ship, and the notion of a “big ship” naturally dials our emotion to “awesome”. Such sense of awesomeness is an essential feature of the romantic warships. Melville further notes that the Temeraire is not merely sailing on the seas, but “beetling o’er the seas.”(50) The word beetle is used as a verb, which means “To curve outward past the normal or usual limit.”(The New Thesaurus, 3rd edition) Perhaps Melville is experimenting with the imagery of the ship bulging outward, similarly to the man’s puffing of chest, a gesture of pride, dominance, and dignity. However, describing the resting Temeraire alone is not enough. Just like a warrior whose valor is proven through actions, the Temeraire is praised by Melville through her fighting in the war of Trafalgar.
“You flapped with flames of battle-flags-
You challenge, Temeraire!
The rear ones of our fleet
They yearned to share your place” (59)
A pre-fight square off, which the hero Temeraire flapped its battle flags, a non-lethal object whose whole purpose is to declare power. Such object is prominent in romanticism: one would often associate with a shook of the lion’s mane, a swish of Zorro’s cloak, an implicit way of saying “shall we?” The flapping of battle flags centered the fight on the Temeraire, and reduced the “rear ones of our fleet” into mere spectators of the war, who yearns for a share of glory. The fight itself was not lengthy and gruesome, but short and decisive (unlike the fighting of the Monitor and Merrimac, which lasted for a whole day). “When four great hulls lay tiered / And the fiery tempest cleared.”(60) The actual fighting lasts only two lines worth of verses, and in no place does it mention the death and wound of the soldiers, whom I infer, are “romanticized” by the poem and are deemed unimportant. Clearly Melville emphasizes more on the grand appearance of the Temeraire, the pre-fight, and the post-fight glory; whereas he deliberately cuts out the actual fighting itself. One can then conclude that the romantic ideals, as Melville depicts, are not concerned with the actual details of the warfare, but more interested in the glories of the warfare.
When industrialism boomed and modernization swept the nation, there was a shift in the emphasis on warfare. War is no longer romanticized, and people have come to realize that to win a war, one needs to concentrate on the actual details of warfare, and forgets the glories of it altogether. Melville expresses his opinion on this shift of emphasis in “The Temeraire” as well. For him, this shift is an inevitable one, and although he is saddened by it, he agrees that the change shall be irreversible.
“Your stern-lights fade away;
Your bulwarks to the years must yield,
And heart-of-oak decay.” (60)
It is interesting to note that stern on the old warships is “the location of the officers' quarters, and during the age of sail became the most opulent part of the ship, with rows of windows, galleries, walkways, and elaborate decorations.” (Wikipedia, Stern) Maybe Melville associates the stern with such galleries and decorations, which like the ideals of romanticism, do not contribute to the actual winning of war but rather add to the glories of it. It is clear that by signaling the fading of the stern-lights, the works of arts and galleries will remain in dark, and fade with it the romantic ideals such grandeurs encapsulate. One can even take a step further and infer that when the Temeraire is discharged of her duty, such arts and decorations would be returned to museums or royal houses where they belonged – They certainly do not belong to war. On the contrary, the Temeraie’s “dismantled … guns and spars.” (60) are likely to be reused on the newer warships, for the fighting Temeraire’s steely weapons are the actual fighting of the ship, and could be salvaged for future wars. When the Temeraire arrived at the shore, “A pigmy steam-tug tows you,” (60) By depicting the steam-tug as a pigmy, Melville expresses his distain toward the mechanical steam engine, whom the Temeraire appeared “Gigantic”. However, the fact that such gigantic warship can be towed tells that beneath the pigmy’s unimpressive stature lies the power of industrialism, which is gradually taking over the glory days of naval warfare and replacing it with the days of deadly efficiency. “The rivets clinch the iron-clads, Men learn a deadlier lore;” (60) The deadlier lore here directly refers to the new philosophy on warfare, the one devoid of romanticism. By its new standards, the boats needed neither sweeping wings of war nor beetling bulwarks, and are instead fashioned with iron clad bodies clinched with rivets. By noting the change of views and the dismantling of Temeraire, Melville spells the finalities of changes into a new era of industrialism.
Although Melville realizes that the change into modernization is a permanent one, he is still drawn to the olden romantic ideals. He wished, perhaps vainly, that some of the romantic sentiments will survive the change and continue to linger on this world. At the beginning of “The Temeraire”, Melville remarks, “The gloomy hulls, in armor grim / … Are tough in fibre yet.” (58) The gloominess of the hulls suggests that the champion of war is reduced to a ghost of its former self, however, even the gloomy hulls retains its “armor grim”, and is described as “tough in fibre”. Perhaps Melville is implying that even though the age of romanticism is no more in warfare, the spirits of it can still be told in stories for a long time afterwards. In the closing of the poem, “But Fame has nailed your battle-flags - / Your ghost it sails before:”(60) Melville wishes that the fame of the Temeraire shall remain with the spirits of the ship, although no longer present physically in the battle field, may still sail in our emotional seas and relive their former glories. His wishes are reflected in modern day’s romantic fictional depictions of warfare, movies such as “Star Wars” and “Zorro” all reflect Melville’s wish that the ideals of romanticism, intimate to our feelings, may yet survive in fictions.
In reading Melville’s poem “The Temeraire”, one can contemplate on Melville’s complex sentiments toward the change from romanticism to industrialism. Although the romantic ideals, like our good sword master, are struck dead by the bullets of cold industrialism, the spirits of their ideals live on in our emotions and stories. By writing “The Temeraire”, Melville discusses the inedibility of such change and expresses his desire for romanticism to lives on in the future, even though it may be purged in actual warfare.
Reference:
Herman Melville, “The Temeraire.” Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War
Wikipedia, “Stern.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern
The New Thesaurus, 3rd edition, “Beetle.”
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I didn't know if I do okay in the class, but the instructor seems nice so hopefully I get okay grades.
Now I rememberd something terrible as I forgot to turn in the physics homework. Shit fuck cocksuckers.
But I played a good 2 hours of guitar, so that should make it up.
I did not bite nails. Hooray.
I'll see what I could do about physics.
