(Billy in the Darbies)
(Billy in the Darbies)
(Billy in the Darbies): The poem's title appears in two forms: underlined at the end of the last leaf of Chapter 30 and in parentheses at the top of the first leaf of the poem. Past editors have uniformly printed the title without formating; MEL follows the parenthetical version. The "ballad," as it is called in Chapter 30, is a dramatic monologue, fair-copied in ink in HM's hand, with revisions added later in pencil. As the words "End of Book / April 19th 1891"—inscribed also in pencil at the bottom of the poem's final leaf—indicate, these pencilings are among HM's last revisions, some incomplete and all performed less than six months before his death. The parenthesized title, also added late, may have been triggered by the penciled revisions of "iron" and "shackles" to "darbies" in the third to last line of the poem (see note below). HM's parentheses around the poem title corresponds to the novella's subtitle, "(An inside narrative.)"; see "Billy Budd Sailor" in Chapter 1. Melville's bookend parentheticals suggest how HM deployed modes of "indirection" in the framing of his narrative even at the level of punctuation.
Good of the Chaplain to enter Lone Bay
And down on his marrow-bones here and pray
For the likes just o' me, Billy Budd.—But, look:
Through the port comes the moon-shine astray!
It tips the guard's cutlascutlass and silvers this nook;
But 'twill die in the dawning of Billy's last day.
A jewel-block they'll make of me tomorrow,
Pendant pearl from the yard-arm-end
Like the ear-drop I gave to Bristol Molly—
O, 'tis me, not the sentence they'll suspend.
Ay, Ay, all is up; and I must up too
Early in the morning, aloft from alow.
On an empty stomach now never it would do.
They'll give me a nibble—bit o' buiscitbiscuit ere I go.
Sure, a messmate will reach me the last parting cup;
But, turning heads away from the hoist and the belay,
Heaven knows who will have the running of me up!
No pipe to those halyards.—But aren't it all sham?
A blur's in my eyes; it is dreaming that I am.
A hatchet to my hauzerhawser? all adrift to go?
The drum roll to grog, and Billy never know?
But Donald he has promised to stand by the plank;
So I'll shake a friendly hand ere I sink.
But—no! It is dead then I'll be, come to think.—
I remember Taff the Welshman when he sank.
And his cheek it was like the budding pink
But me they'll lash me in hammock, drop me deep.
Fathoms down, fathoms down, how I'll dream fast asleep.
I feel it stealing now. Sentry, are you there?
Just ease these darbiesthese darbies: HM's last minute revisions to this phrase also triggered the title of the poem, displayed in parentheses at the top of the poem's first leaf: "(Billy in the Darbies)"; see note above. Initially, in the fair-copied poem, HM had settled on the line "Just ease this iron at the wrist,". However, he revised "iron" to "shackles" and then again to "darbies" (slang for handcuffs), which he circled in pencil, but he neglected to modify "this" to the plural "these." MEL emends the incomplete revision to "these darbies." at the wrist,
and roll me over fairand roll me over fair: Initially in fair copy, HM had settled on "Ease it, and roll me over fair" with "Ease it" referring to "this iron" (i.e. handcuff) in the preceding line. However, in revising "iron" to "darbies" (see note above), he also canceled "Ease it" in this line, without capitalizing "and," which would signal the start of a new line of verse. This oversight poses problems for editors, especially with regard to the versification of the poem's final lines. If an editor were to add the shortened line to the previous line, the effective "wrist" / "twist" rhyme would be buried; if "and" is capitalized (as all other editions have it) the shortened three-beat line would appear inconsistent with the poem's four and five-beat meter. Neither editorial solution is viable, especially since Melville could have pursued any number of revision strategies in resolving the problem, were it not for his failing health. MEL leaves the line as it appears in MS, on its own and without capitalization, as a reminder of the incompleteness of Melville's final work.,
I am sleepy, and the oozy weeds about me twist.