Wednesday, September 30, 2015

summer mornings, unwanted in revision

Here's something I need to add to the catalog of words or phrases that appear in Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) or Pierre (1852) and the 1851-1853 magazine series "Scenes Beyond the Western Border" but were later deleted or somehow revised out of the book version, Scenes and Adventures in the Army (1857). Previous Dragooned posts listing similarly deleted items are

Looking harder at revisions to the May 1853 installment of Scenes Beyond the Western Border, I see the expression "summer mornings" does not appear in the 1857 book version.

May 1853:
"But, as in summer mornings when birds sweetly sing, and rosy mists add beauty to the fair prospect, the sun rises to give a magic brilliancy to all,—scattering diamonds and pearls upon the dewy green,—so, always to such happy scene, the smile of one, must give the light of enchantment!"  --May 1853 Scenes Beyond the Western Border 
No exemplary "summer mornings" appear after revision. Instead of multiple "summer mornings," we get the single representative "summer dawn," now (with the help of "rosy" transplanted from the earlier expression "rosy mists") a "rosy summer dawn":
The rosy summer dawn is lovely, and sweetly the birds sing in its praise;—but lo! the sun appears, and gives a magic brilliancy to all,—scattering diamonds and pearls upon the dewy green;—so, always to such pleasant scene, the smile of one, must give the light of enchantment!   --Scenes and Adventures in the Army
Revised out of the May 1853 text, the unwanted reference to "summer mornings" occurs in the first sentence of Melville's Pierre, first published in August 1852.
THERE are some strange summer mornings in the country, when he who is but a sojourner from the city shall early walk forth into the fields, and be wonder-smitten with the trance-like aspect of the green and golden world. Not a flower stirs; the trees forget to wave; the grass itself seems to have ceased to grow; and all Nature, as if suddenly become conscious of her own profound mystery, and feeling no refuge from it but silence, sinks into this wonderful and indescribable repose.  --Pierre, or, The Ambiguities

No comments:

Post a Comment