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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Carol Rumens

Poem of the week: In the Prison Pen by Herman Melville

In the Prison Pen by Hermann Melville
‘Around him swarm the plaining ghosts / Like those on Virgil’s shore.’ Illustration: Rowan Righelato/The Guardian

In the Prison Pen

Listless he eyes the palisades
And sentries in the glare;
’Tis barren as a pelican-beach —
But his world is ended there.

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