[meteorite-list] Year of Meteors [1859-60]; "The Portent (1859)"

From: Sean T. Murray <stm_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:48:19 -0400
Message-ID: <9FF8F8C0875644E795DDB22C0B7854F4_at_platinum>

Is it possible that they were not actually speaking of a meteor/meteorite,
but referencing the Wilhelm Tempel 1859 comet?

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "drtanuki" <drtanuki at yahoo.com>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; "Ken Igarashi"
> <drtanuki at gmail.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 10:09 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Year of Meteors [1859-60]; "The Portent (1859)"
>
>
>> Dear List,
>> I happened upon Whitman`s poem, Year of Meteors [1859-60],
>> tonight.
>>
>> ..."Nor the comet that came unannounced out of the north flaring in
>> heaven,
>> Nor the strange huge meteor-procession dazzling and clear shooting
>> over our heads,
>> (A moment, a moment long it sail'd its balls of unearthly light over
>> our heads,
>> Then departed, dropt in the night, and was gone;)
>> Of such, and fitful as they, I sing--with gleams from them would
>> gleam and patch these chants,
>> Your chants, O year all mottled with evil and good--year of forebodings!
>> Year of comets and meteors transient and strange--lo! even here one
>> equally transient and strange!
>> As I flit through you hastily, soon to fall and be gone, what is this
>> chant,
>> What am I myself but one of your meteors?" [FULL TEXT BELOW]
>>
>> Does anyone know of which meteor (large bolide) he is speaking of.
>> Also a reference that in 1859 December, Herman Melville wrote "The
>> Portent (1859)?
>> "But the streaming beard is shown
>> (Weird John Brown),
>> The meteor of the war."
>>
>> The comet was most likely Comet 1859(1)- Comet Temple1.
>> http://deepimpact.umd.edu/science/tempel1-discoverer.html
>>
>> Thank you.
>> Dirk Ross...Tokyo
>> www.meteoritesjapan.com
>>
>> Year of Meteors [1859-60]
>> by Walt Whitman
>> (1819-1892)
>> [FULL TEXT]
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Year of meteors! brooding year!
>> I would bind in words retrospective some of your deeds and signs,
>> I would sing your contest for the 19th Presidentiad,
>> I would sing how an old man, tall, with white hair, mounted the
>> scaffold in Virginia,
>> (I was at hand, silent I stood with teeth shut close, I watch'd,
>> I stood very near you old man when cool and indifferent, but trembling
>> with age and your unheal'd wounds you mounted the scaffold;)
>> I would sing in my copious song your census returns of the States,
>> The tables of population and products, I would sing of your ships
>> and their cargoes,
>> The proud black ships of Manhattan arriving, some fill'd with
>> immigrants, some from the isthmus with cargoes of gold,
>> Songs thereof would I sing, to all that hitherward comes would welcome
>> give,
>> And you would I sing, fair stripling! welcome to you from me, young
>> prince of England!
>> (Remember you surging Manhattan's crowds as you pass'd with your
>> cortege of nobles?
>> There in the crowds stood I, and singled you out with attachment;)
>> Nor forget I to sing of the wonder, the ship as she swam up my bay,
>> Well-shaped and stately the Great Eastern swam up my bay, she was
>> 600 feet long,
>> Her moving swiftly surrounded by myriads of small craft I forget not
>> to sing;
>> Nor the comet that came unannounced out of the north flaring in heaven,
>> Nor the strange huge meteor-procession dazzling and clear shooting
>> over our heads,
>> (A moment, a moment long it sail'd its balls of unearthly light over
>> our heads,
>> Then departed, dropt in the night, and was gone;)
>> Of such, and fitful as they, I sing--with gleams from them would
>> gleam and patch these chants,
>> Your chants, O year all mottled with evil and good--year of forebodings!
>> Year of comets and meteors transient and strange--lo! even here one
>> equally transient and strange!
>> As I flit through you hastily, soon to fall and be gone, what is this
>> chant,
>> What am I myself but one of your meteors?
>>
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>
Received on Wed 24 Sep 2008 11:48:19 AM PDT