Joaquin Miller, pseudonimo di Cincinnatus Heine Miller , è stato un poeta, drammaturgo e giurista statunitense soprannominato il poeta delle Sierras o anche Byron of the Rockies.
Il biografo Peterson ricorda che la britannica Westminster Review ha sostenuto che la sua poesia fosse paragonabile a quella di Walt Whitman senza le medesime grossolanità.
Si tratta di un poeta che pretende d'incarnare lo spirito della frontiera statunitense. Questo gli ha permesso di riscuotere un considerevole successo anche in Inghilterra: stando infatti a quanto scrive Bayard Taylor nel 1876, gli Inglesi anteposero la pretesa fierezza di Joaquin Miller alla musa pura e serena di Longfellow. Certo la sua è stata una vita avventurosa, tuttavia non si sa quanto l'abbia ritoccata: c'è chi l'ha infatti definito un bugiardo.
Quanto alla qualità poetica, Henry Cuyler Bunner gli rimprovera di aver posto impropriamente il suono Goethe in rima con teeth. Lo stesso Miller afferma: Sarei perduto se dovessi affermare la differenza tra un esametro e un pentametro per salvare il mio scalpo.
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“This creature comes from out the dim
Far centuries, beyond the rim
Of time's remotest reach or stir.”
IV, p. 28.
The Ship in the Desert (1875)
Epigraph, Ch. 1 : Mount Shasta; this appears as "To Mount Shasta" in In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890), p. 126
Variant: I saw the lightning's gleaming rod
Reach forth and write upon the sky
The awful autograph of God.
This variant was cited as being in The Ship in the Desert in the 10th edition of Familiar Quotations (1919) by John Bartlett, but this appears to be an incorrect citation of a misquotation first found in The Japanese Letters of Lafcadio Hearn (1910), edited by Elizabeth Bislande, p. 161.
Shadows of Shasta (1881)
Contesto: Where storm-born shadows hide and hunt
I knew thee, in thy glorious youth,
And loved thy vast face, white as truth;
I stood where thunderbolts were wont
To smite thy Titan-fashioned front,
And heard dark mountains rock and roll;
I saw the lightning's gleaming rod
Reach forth and write on heaven's scroll
The awful autograph of God!
Epigraph, Ch. 1 : Mount Shasta; this appears as "To Mount Shasta" in In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890), p. 126
Variant: I saw the lightning's gleaming rod
Reach forth and write upon the sky
The awful autograph of God.
This variant was cited as being in The Ship in the Desert in the 10th edition of Familiar Quotations (1919) by John Bartlett, but this appears to be an incorrect citation of a misquotation first found in The Japanese Letters of Lafcadio Hearn (1910), edited by Elizabeth Bislande, p. 161.
Shadows of Shasta (1881)
Contesto: Where storm-born shadows hide and hunt
I knew thee, in thy glorious youth,
And loved thy vast face, white as truth;
I stood where thunderbolts were wont
To smite thy Titan-fashioned front,
And heard dark mountains rock and roll;
I saw the lightning's gleaming rod
Reach forth and write on heaven's scroll
The awful autograph of God!
“I only saw her as she pass'd —
A great, sad beauty, in whose eyes
Lay all the loves of Paradise.”
IV, p. 25.
The Ship in the Desert (1875)
Contesto: I only saw her as she pass'd —
A great, sad beauty, in whose eyes
Lay all the loves of Paradise....
You shall not know her — she who sat
Unconscious in my heart all time
I dream'd and wove this wayward rhyme,
And loved and did not blush thereat.
“The fairest face that ever yet
Look'd in a wave as in a glass”
IV, p. 24.
The Ship in the Desert (1875)
Contesto: p>These be but men. We may forget
The wild sea-king, the tawny brave,
The frowning wold, the woody shore,
The tall-built, sunburnt men of Mars...But what and who was she, the fair?
The fairest face that ever yet
Look'd in a wave as in a glass;
That look'd as look the still, far stars,
So woman-like, into the wave
To contemplate their beauty there,
Yet look as looking anywhere?</p
Epigraph, Ch. 4 : The Old Gold-Hunter
Shadows of Shasta (1881)
Contesto: For the Right, through thickest night,
Till the man-brute Wrong be driven
From high places; till the Right
Shall lift like some grand beacon light.
For the Right! Love, Right and duty;
Lift the world up, though you fall
Heaped with dead before the wall;
God can find a soul of beauty
Where it falls, as gems of worth
Are found by miners dark in earth.
“Each gives to each, and like the star
Gets back its gift in tenfold pay.”
The Building of the City Beautiful (1905), Ch. V : How Beautiful!, p. 48.
Contesto: p>Each gives to each, and like the star
Gets back its gift in tenfold pay.To get and give and give amain
The rivers run and oceans roll.
O generous and high-born rain
When reigning as a splendid whole!
That man who lives for self alone
Lives for the meanest mortal known.</p
“Dear, I took these trackless masses
Fresh from Him who fashioned them”
"Juanita".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: p>Dear, I took these trackless masses
Fresh from Him who fashioned them;
Wrought in rock, and hewed fair passes,
Flower set, as sets a gem.Aye, I built in woe. God willed it;
Woe that passeth ghosts of guilt.
Yet I built as His birds builded —
Builded singing as I built.All is finished! Roads of flowers
Wait your loyal little feet.
All completed? Nay, the hours
Till you come are incomplete.</p
"Juanita".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: p>O, the sea of lights for streaming
When the thousand flags are furled—
When the gleaming bay lies dreaming
As it duplicates the world!You will come my dearest, truest!
Come my sovereign queen often;
My blue skies will then be bluest;
My white rose be whitest then:Then the song! Ah, then the sabre
Flashing up the walls of night!
Hate of wrong and love of neighbor
Rhymes of battle for the Right!</p
“That man who lives for self alone
Lives for the meanest mortal known.”
The Building of the City Beautiful (1905), Ch. V : How Beautiful!, p. 48.
Contesto: p>Each gives to each, and like the star
Gets back its gift in tenfold pay.To get and give and give amain
The rivers run and oceans roll.
O generous and high-born rain
When reigning as a splendid whole!
That man who lives for self alone
Lives for the meanest mortal known.</p
"The Larger College".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: p>Behold this sea, that sapphire sky!
Where nature does so much for man,
Shall man not set his standard high,
And hold some higher, holier plan?
Some loftier plan than ever planned
By outworn book of outworn land?Where God has done so much for man,
Shall man for God do aught at all?
The soul that feeds on books alone —
I count that soul exceeding small
That lives alone by book and creed,—
A soul that has not learned to read.</p
"The Larger College".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: p>Man's books are but man's alphabet,
Beyond and on his lessons lie — The lessons of the violet,
The large gold letters of the sky; The love of beauty, blossomed soil, The large content, the tranquil toil:The toil that nature ever taught,
The patient toil, the constant stir,
The toil of seas where shores are wrought,
The toil of Christ, the carpenter;
The toil of God incessantly
By palm-set land or frozen sea.</p
“No matter if she loved or no,
God knows I loved enough for both”
IV, p. 29.
The Ship in the Desert (1875)
Contesto: I dared not dream she loved me. Nay,
Her love was proud; and pride is loth
To look with favor, own it fond
Of one the world loves not to-day …
No matter if she loved or no,
God knows I loved enough for both,
And knew her as you shall not know
Till you have known sweet death, and you
Have cross'd the dark; gone over to
The great majority beyond.
As quoted in Oh! Downtrodden (1976) by David Zane.
“THERE ARE MANY TO-MORROWS, MY LOVE, MY LOVE, — THERE IS ONLY ONE TO-DAY.”
Dedication to his daughter Jaunita Miller on her 10th birthday, later published as "The Voice of the Dove".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: Come listen, O Love, to the voice of the dove,
Come, hearken and hear him say,
THERE ARE MANY TO-MORROWS, MY LOVE, MY LOVE, — THERE IS ONLY ONE TO-DAY.
IV, p. 25.
The Ship in the Desert (1875)
Contesto: I only saw her as she pass'd —
A great, sad beauty, in whose eyes
Lay all the loves of Paradise....
You shall not know her — she who sat
Unconscious in my heart all time
I dream'd and wove this wayward rhyme,
And loved and did not blush thereat.
“I dared not dream she loved me.”
IV, p. 29.
The Ship in the Desert (1875)
Contesto: I dared not dream she loved me. Nay,
Her love was proud; and pride is loth
To look with favor, own it fond
Of one the world loves not to-day …
No matter if she loved or no,
God knows I loved enough for both,
And knew her as you shall not know
Till you have known sweet death, and you
Have cross'd the dark; gone over to
The great majority beyond.
Epigraph, Ch. 2 : Twenty Carats Fine.
Shadows of Shasta (1881)
Contesto: A thousand miles of mighty wood
Where thunder-storms stride fire-shod;
A thousand flowers every rod,
A stately tree on every rood;
Ten thousand leaves on every tree,
And each a miracle to me;
And yet there be men who question God!
“He rode as rides the hurricane;
He seem'd to swallow up the plain”
I, p. 15.
The Ship in the Desert (1875)
Contesto: He rode as rides the hurricane;
He seem'd to swallow up the plain;
He rode as never man did ride,
He rode, for ghosts rode at his side,
And on his right a grizzled grim —
No, no, this tale is not of him.
"For Those Who Fail" in Memorie and Rime (1884), p. 237.
Contesto: p>Oh, great is the hero who wins a name,
But greater many and many a time
Some pale-faced fellow who dies in shame,
And lets God finish the thought sublime.And great is the man with a sword undrawn,
And good is the man who refrains from wine;
But the man who fails and yet still fights on,
Lo, he is the twin-born brother of mine.</p
“The mountains from that fearful first
Named day were God's own house.”
Epigraph, Ch. 3 : Man-Hunters.
Shadows of Shasta (1881)
Contesto: The mountains from that fearful first
Named day were God's own house. Behold,
'Twas here dread Sinai's thunders burst
And showed His face. 'Twas here of old
His prophets dwelt. Lo, it was here
The Christ did come when death drew near.
“Aye, I built in woe. God willed it;
Woe that passeth ghosts of guilt.”
"Juanita".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: p>Dear, I took these trackless masses
Fresh from Him who fashioned them;
Wrought in rock, and hewed fair passes,
Flower set, as sets a gem.Aye, I built in woe. God willed it;
Woe that passeth ghosts of guilt.
Yet I built as His birds builded —
Builded singing as I built.All is finished! Roads of flowers
Wait your loyal little feet.
All completed? Nay, the hours
Till you come are incomplete.</p
“Come my sovereign queen often;
My blue skies will then be bluest;
My white rose be whitest then:”
"Juanita".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: p>O, the sea of lights for streaming
When the thousand flags are furled—
When the gleaming bay lies dreaming
As it duplicates the world!You will come my dearest, truest!
Come my sovereign queen often;
My blue skies will then be bluest;
My white rose be whitest then:Then the song! Ah, then the sabre
Flashing up the walls of night!
Hate of wrong and love of neighbor
Rhymes of battle for the Right!</p
“And love for love is reckoned best.”
IV, p. 26.
The Ship in the Desert (1875)
Contesto: p>The sunlight of a sunlit land,
A land of fruit, of flowers, and
A land of love and calm delight;
A land where night is not like night,
And noon is but a name for rest,
And love for love is reckoned best. Where conversations of the eyes
Are all enough; where beauty thrills
The heart like hues of harvest-home;
Where rage lies down, where passion dies,
Where peace hath her abiding place....</p
“The very clouds have wept and died,
And only God is in the sky.”
Origine: The Ship in the Desert (1875), XXXV
Contesto: Lo! all things moving must go by.
The sea lies dead. Behold, this land
Sits desolate in dust beside
His snow-white, seamless shroud of sand;
The very clouds have wept and died,
And only God is in the sky.
“Behold, how free
The mountains stand, and eternally.”
Epigraph, Ch. 3 : Man-Hunters.
Shadows of Shasta (1881)
Contesto: These stony altars they have hurled
Oppression back, have kept the boon
Of liberty. Behold, how free
The mountains stand, and eternally.
"The Larger College".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: p>Behold this sea, that sapphire sky!
Where nature does so much for man,
Shall man not set his standard high,
And hold some higher, holier plan?
Some loftier plan than ever planned
By outworn book of outworn land?Where God has done so much for man,
Shall man for God do aught at all?
The soul that feeds on books alone —
I count that soul exceeding small
That lives alone by book and creed,—
A soul that has not learned to read.</p
“Yet are steeps and stone-strown passes
Smooth o'er head, and nearest God.”
"Juanita".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: p>Rugged! Rugged as Parnassus!
Rude, as all roads I have trod —
Yet are steeps and stone-strown passes
Smooth o'er head, and nearest God.Here black thunders of my canyon
Shake its walls in Titan wars!
Here white sea-born clouds companion
With such peaks as know the stars!</p
“Here white sea-born clouds companion
With such peaks as know the stars!”
"Juanita".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Contesto: p>Rugged! Rugged as Parnassus!
Rude, as all roads I have trod —
Yet are steeps and stone-strown passes
Smooth o'er head, and nearest God.Here black thunders of my canyon
Shake its walls in Titan wars!
Here white sea-born clouds companion
With such peaks as know the stars!</p
"For Those Who Fail" in Memorie and Rime (1884), p. 237.
Contesto: "All honor to him who shall win the prize,"
The world has cried for a thousand years;
But to him who tries, and who fails and dies,
I give great honor and glory and tears.Give glory and honor and pitiful tears
To all who fail in their deeds sublime;
Their ghosts are many in the van of years,
They were born with Time in advance of Time.
